ATLANTA, GEORGIA, May 06 — Noah Lyles was eager to see what he could do at 150m, a distance he hadn’t raced in four years.
A couple of days before the adidas Atlanta City Games, a local youth runner asked Lyles, “How fast are you?”
“So fast,” he answered. “The fastest.”
Lyles displayed his blazing speed while thundering down the temporary elevated straightaway in Centennial Olympic Park, but came up short of a record.
The 200’s reigning world champion and American Recordholder ran a personal best of 14.56, the third-fastest time in history. He knocked 0.13 off his previous best from ’19 in Boston, defeating Erriyon Knighton (14.85) and Ferdinand Omanyala of Kenya (14.89 African Record).
Lyles had been aiming for Usain Bolt’s world best of 14.35 run in ’09 in Birmingham, England. Tyson Gay is still the fastest American, having clocked 14.41 en route to a 200 time of 19.41 in ’10 in Manchester.
“But it’s alright,” Lyles said. “It’s a PR, it’s a step forward. I did what I wanted to do, though, which was go 100% from the get-go, command the race by 70m and run away with it.”
Starting in lane 3 on the 5-lane track, Lyles was flanked by Knighton in 4 and Omanyala in 2. Knighton recorded the fastest start, and Lyles said that coming out of his drive phase, “I knew Omanyala was going to try to get up on me… I stood up and I was just like, ‘Yeah, that ain’t enough, partner.’”
While the Olympic bronze medalist graded his first 10 a “C” and the next 10 a “B-plus,” he said “the acceleration, I definitely give that closer to an A.”
Aleia Hobbs brought her A-game, running 10.99 in the final of the women’s 100 after going 10.93 in the heats — 0.07 off her seasonal best 10.86. Training partner Mikiah Brisco (11.02) pushed her until Hobbs burst ahead at the end.
“I’m trying to stay consistent. That’s the No. 1 goal and I’m getting it done,” said Hobbs, who dashed to a 6.94 AR in the 60 at the USATF Indoor in February.
Consistent too was Grant Holloway, the 2-time world champion, who ran a year-leading 13.01 in the 110H. But Holloway was even happier to see that training partner Robert Dunning is right behind him. Before his hometown crowd, Dunning posted a PR of 13.09, taking 0.14 off his previous best from mid April.
“I’m more excited for…
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