Noah Lyles

Noah Lyles Continues To Soar With Another 200-Meter Win In Lausanne

by Chrös McDougall

Noah Lyles competes during the men's 200-meter at the 2022 Herculis EBS Diamond League stop on Aug. 10, 2022 in Monaco.

 

Noah Lyles’ takeover of the men’s 200-meter continued Friday. 
Despite a poor start, Lyles charged back to win handily over fellow American Michael Norman at the Diamond League stop in Lausanne, Switzerland. Earlier this summer, Lyles defended his 200-meter title while Norman won his first in the 400 at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Lyles is also the reigning Olympic bronze medalist in the event.
Lyles won Friday with a time of 19.56, while Norman posted a season-best 19.76. Another American, 18-year-old Erriyon Knighton, was sixth in 20.13. Knighton was third in the 200 in Eugene. 
The 25-year-old Lyles, who also set an American record at the world championships, has won every 200-meter race he’s entered this outdoor season.
Lyles and Norman were among 11 Americans to reach the podium in Lausanne, which is the penultimate Diamond League stop before the Grand Final Sept. 7-8 in Zurich. An additional meeting is set for Sept. 2 in Brussels.
Following a U.S. sweep of the men’s shot put in Eugene, the same three guys were back in Lausanne to collect some more hardware. Joe Kovacs, a two-time world champion who took second in Eugene, won this time with a top throw of 22.65 meters. Ryan Crouser, the two-time defending Olympic gold medalist who won his first world title this summer, was second with a best throw of 22.05 meters. Josh Awotunde, who was third in Eugene, ended in sixth at 21.22 meters.
Aleia Hobbs posted Team USA’s other win of the day in a blink-and-you’ll-miss it finish in the women’s 100. Hobbs, an Olympic relay silver medalist, crossed the line in 10.87, which was just .01 ahead of the recently crowned 200-meter world champion Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and .02 ahead of Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast. Americans Tamari Davis (10.94) and Twanisha Terry (11.13) were just off the podium in fourth and fifth.
Grant Holloway and Trey Cunningham finished first and second in the men’s 110-meter hurdles in Eugene. This time Cunningham was second (13.10) and Holloway third (13.11), both behind Rasheed Broadbell of Jamaica, who won with a personal-best time of 12.99.

Alicia Monson competes during the women's 10,000-meter final at the 2022 World Athletics Championships on July 16, 2022 in Eugene, Ore.

 

In the women’s 100-meter hurdles, Tia Jones got onto the podium in third with a time of 12.47 seconds, trailing Puerto Rico’s Jasmine Camacho-Quinn, the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 champion who won in a meet-record 12.34 seconds, and Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan, the reigning world champion who finished in 12.45. Nia Ali of the U.S. took fourth in 12.59 seconds, and former world record holder Keni Harrison had the same time but finished sixth.
Alicia Monson, who made her Olympic debut last year in the 10K, raced to a second-place finish in the non-Olympic women’s 3,000-meter event Friday. She clocked a personal-best time of 8:26.81, which was just .01 behind the winner Francine Niyonsaba of Burundi. Elise Cranny, a fellow U.S. Olympian, was sixth in 8:29.95, which was also a personal best.
In the field events, two American men ended in third place.
Curtis Thompson, who made his Olympic debut in Tokyo, placed third in the men’s javelin on the strength of his 83.72 meter opening throw. India’s Neeraj Chopra, the defending Olympic champ, won with a throw of 89.08 meters.
Fellow Olympian JuVaughn Harrison ended in the same position in the men’s high jump. He was one of four who maxed out at 2.24 meters, but he placed behind Ukraine’s Andriy Protsenko and Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim on the tiebreaker. Barshim is the reigning Olympic and three-time world champ.
Among the other notable results, reigning world bronze medalist Tori Franklin took fifth in the women’s triple jump, while fellow Olympians Donald Scott and Christian Taylor took sixth and seventh, respectively, in the men’s triple jump.
Dalilah Muhammad, a former Olympic and world champion in the women’s 400 hurdles, was seventh.
Evan Jager, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist in the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase who came back from years of battling injuries to make his return to the world championships in Eugene, ran a season-best time of 8:16.99 on Friday to finish eighth.


Chrös McDougall has covered the Olympic and Paralympic Movement for TeamUSA.org since 2009 on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc. He is based in Minneapolis-St. Paul.