Noah Lyles competes at 2019 USATF Outdoor Championships on July 27, 2019 in Des Moines.
Noah Lyles added another feather to his cap in the men’s 200-meter with a win at the IAAF Diamond League event in Paris on Saturday.
The 22-year-old national champion from Gainesville, Florida, nabbed the top spot on the podium with a time of 19.65 seconds. While not quite as fast as the 19.50 he ran in Lausanne on July 5 when he moved into No. 4 on the all-time list, it was still plenty fast enough to win and serve notice ahead of both the Diamond League final and world championships in Doha, Qatar, in September.
The time also beat the previous meet record of 19.73 seconds set in 2013 by none other than Usain Bolt.
“It felt fast. I blinked and all of a sudden the race was over,” Lyles said. “When I was coming off the turn it felt like such a fast track, the fastest I've ever felt coming off the turn.
“Looking to Doha, it's not about going after Bolt's record or anything like that, but when we get there we're willing to go after any record.”
Turkey’s Ramil Guliyev, the reigning world champion in the 200meters, finished second behind Lyles with a time of 20.01 seconds and Canada’s Aaron Brown was third with a time of 20.13 seconds.
Lyles’ was just one of 12 podium performances by American athletes at the last Diamond League meet before the finals in Zurich on Aug. 29 and Brussels on Sept. 6.
Hanna Green, who finished as the runner-up at the national championships last month and will represent the U.S. at the world championships, won the women’s 800-meter with a time of 1:58.39.
The Latrobe, Pennsylvania, native beat Jamaica’s Natoya Goule in a tight race, the latter coming in with a time of 1:58.59, for her first-ever Diamond League victory in just her second race on the circuit. With the win she earned the last spot in the final.
Two-time Olympian Will Claye, who in 2012 became the first American since 1904 to win Olympic medals in both the long and triple jumps, out-dueled his teammates for a U.S. sweep in the men’s triple jump. Claye set a meet record with his top jump of 18.06 meters, while two-time Olympic gold medalist Christian Taylor equaled a season’s best jump of 17.82 meters and Omar Craddock was third with a jump of 17.28 meters.
In the last race of the day, national champion Daniel Roberts powered his way to a win in the men’s 110-meter hurdles with a time of 13.08 seconds. Spain’s Orlando Ortega was second in 13.14 seconds and American Freddie Crittenden came in third with a personal best time of 13.17 seconds.
The U.S. women also fared well in the 400-meter on Saturday, with Kendall Ellis taking second, Shakima Wimbley third and Phyllis Francis fourth at the distance. Ellis ran the distance in 51.21 seconds, just off the pace of winner Stephanie Ann McPherson of Jamaica, who won in 51.11 seconds.
Olympic silver medalist Joe Kovacs took second in the men’s shot put with a best throw of 22.11 meters, just behind New Zealand’s Thomas Walsh, who threw 22.44 meters for the meet record.
Keturah Orji took third place in the women’s triple jump with a personal best distance of 14.72 meters, and Sandi Morris also came in third in the women’s pole vault with 4.75 meters.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.