Silesia: Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson exacted a measure of revenge by beating Olympic champion Noah Lyles over 100m at the Silesia Diamond League meet on Saturday. It was the first time the two sprinters have met since Lyles was awarded Olympic gold in Paris a year ago, just five-thousandths of a second ahead of Thompson.
The fast-starting Jamaican timed a joint meet record of 9.87s for victory in the Polish city of Chorzow, with Lyles second in 9.90sec. Another American, Kenny Bednarek, rounded out the podium in 9.96sec.
“It felt alright. My job is to get the job done,” said Thompson.
The Jamaican, who missed the cut for the 2023 world championships in Budapest, will be one of the favourites for this year’s edition in Tokyo on September 13-21.
Lyles was drawn in lane seven, outside Bednarek and inside fellow American Christian Coleman, with Thompson in five, South African Akani Simbine to his left.
But it was Thompson who stole the march in hot and humid conditions, rocketing out of his blocks to leave the field in his wake for a true gun-to-tape display.
Lyles had the joint slowest reaction of the nine-man line-up and looked out of even a podium finish from the start before coming through strongly over the closing 20 metres to pinch second from Bednarek. Agencies
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