Deji’s Doodles: Thompson and Lyles open their season quite early

Deji’s Doodles: Thompson and Lyles open their season quite early

We are back. Guess it didn’t take long before the track season threw up some headlines. Granted, we are still in the indoor season, but with the Top 2 in the men’s 100m final at the Olympics, we just had to bring out our pen ( well, notepad) and scribble our thoughts on what it meant to the track world.

Kishane Thompson doesn’t leave much to talk about in his first indoor race of the season.

This felt like a masquerade coming out at night. Seeing Kishane Thompson run this early in the season was a shocker to many fans as the Olympic 100m Silver medallist ran the 60m indoors for the first time in a while. There isn’t much to unpack from the race itself, but more from the rationale behind why his coach, Stephen Francis, made the decision for him to travel over 30 hours to Astana in Kazakhstan to compete.

This is the athlete who, despite his vast body mass. And the roar he usually lets out at the beginning of a race will most likely get his opponents to shiver. However, he seems to have a body more fragile than at most top sprinters, do almost everything possible to avoid running indoors; this felt rather bizarre.

🇯🇲Kishane Thompson runs a 6.48 60m into a -2.1 headwindpic.twitter.com/SF7AZiAI23

— Travis Miller (@travismillerx13) January 18, 2025

Thompson wasn’t flawless, but he was effective. A sluggish start in the heats saw him clock 6.58, yet he still cruised into the final. Under the lights, he roared to the crowd, roared again at the blocks, then powered through the field to claim a well-earned victory.

At the end of the race, he seems to have held his right thigh with a slight grimace on his face, something we have become accustomed to. As much as the fans love to see the very best of athletes compete every week, the dynamics of how Track is structured make it almost impossible, and major championships are the only avenue for that to happen. After Astana, don’t be surprised that the wait to see Thompson race again might be extended.

Cameron Myers was on top of the world in New York.

Cameron Myers isn’t just breaking records—he’s rewriting what’s possible for teenage middle-distance runners. In his first-ever indoor race, the 18-year-old Australian shattered the world U20 mile record, clocking 3:53.12 at the Dr. Sander Invitational in New York.

He didn’t have it easy. Kenya’s Festus Lagat pushed him to…