Lyles races to fourth successive 200m title, draws level with Bolt

American clocked 19.52s for victory with Bednarek and Levell following suit at the Tokyo World C'ships

- Shantanu Srivastava

To call Noah Lyles a showman is fast becoming a tired cliche. But such is the American's pull, such is his belief and such are his timings across 200 metres that there are few athletes going around who can rival his stardom.

On Friday, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist retained his World Championships crown with a blistering 19.52s run that made him only the second athlete after Usain Bolt to win the 200m world title on four occasions. While Bolt’s titles were spread across a nine-year period (2007-2015), Lyles has won the competition each time he has competed in (2019-2025).

Lyles’ reaction time off the blocks was third slowest of the night (0.167s) but he ran a brilliant curve and proved impossible to catch in the home stretch. “Ididn’t have the start I had in the semifinal but I knew I was still moving fast. I studied my competitors. [knew their momentum was going to show up once we got closer to 150m but mine was going to build up after I hit that mark,” he said.

US compatriot Kenny Bednarek was next with 19.58s while Jamaican Bryan Levell took third spot with a personal best effort of 19.64s, just ahead of Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo (19.65s).