Lyles all smiles, Jackson all action at worlds
Noah Lyles crouched down, put his hands on his knees and glared at the clock. Not seeing what he’d hoped for, he waved his hand dismissively and walked back toward the track to celebrate what was still a longawaited win Thursday in the 200 meters at the world championships.
Oh, but this night would just keep getting better.
The clock that, for a moment, read ‘‘19.32,’’ would adjust down a tick to ‘‘19.31.’’ That meant he broke Michael Johnson’s hallowed, 26-year-old American record — a mark that, for decades, seemed unreachable.
And then, the scoreboard that, at first, only had Lyles’ name on it, popped up with the names of the two finishers behind him. Kenny
The WRC has pledged to help Hayden Paddon bring his new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 car to New Zealand.
Paddon told Stuff last week he might not be able to bring the car to New Zealand after next month’s Rally Finland because of the skyrocketing international transportation costs.
Prices have tripled over the past 12 months and with Paddon having to run his team on a tight budget he said he may not be able to get the car transported from Europe to make improvements and use it in Rally NZ, which starts late September.
Paddon’s backup plan was to drive his AP4, which he first used in 2016. However,
WRC Promoter event director Simon Larkin says they’ll help Paddon get his car to New Zealand, because they know how important it will be for him to be competitive in the WRC2 category.
‘‘I’m very confident that his i20 Rally2 will be in New Zealand and he’ll be competing in it at Rally NZ,’’ Larkin said. ‘‘We are doing everything we can to support Hayden, logistically and a bit of other support.
‘‘We helped him try to get a Rally1 car and it’s no secret that Hyundai were a little behind everyone else in terms of developing the Rally1 car to start with and then they had a testing accident, which put them back again, because they had to build a new test car.
Bednarek and Erriyon Knighton of the U.S. The Americans swept the 200, just as they had the 100 four nights earlier.
Lyles pounded his hand on the track four times, stood up straight and ripped off his jersey. He grabbed his medal from the presenter, then went over and hugged his family and grabbed an American flag — one of many that have been needed at these championships on home turf. The sweep gave the U.S. 22 medals through seven days.
Lyles’ 19.31 was the third-fastest time in history, behind only Usain Bolt’s 19.19 in 2009 and a 19.26 run two years later by another Jamaican. Yohan Blake, while he was briefly pushing Bolt for supremacy.
But Michael Johnson and those gold shoes he wore to run his 19.32 at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 have
‘‘They don’t have additional chassis, so that’s unfortunate, but I know there are already conversations about next year, a pretty big place in track history, too.
‘‘I saw the time pop up and saw I tied Michael Johnson’s record,’’ Lyles said. ‘‘I was like ‘Really, you’re going to do me like that?’ Then, that number changed from two to a one and my whole world changed.’’
His victory came moments after Shericka Jackson gave the Jamaican women another gold in the sprints. She ran 21.45, the second-fastest time in history, to beat 100-meter champion ShellyAnn Fraser-Pryce.
Only defending champion Dina Asher-Smith of Britain, who won bronze, prevented a back-to-back Jamaican sweep.
Jackson’s time is shy only of the 21.34 run by Florence GriffithJoyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
While the Jamaican medalists with Hayden and that’s great. ‘‘But I remain extremely confident that Hayden’s Rally2 car will be in New Zealand.’’
As well some of the leading international drivers who’ll be at Rally NZ, like Kalle Rovanpera, Ott Tanak and Elfyn Evans, Paddon will be the face of the event for many who don’t follow motorsport closely. So it’s crucial for WRC Promoter, the organisation which runs the WRC, that Paddon has a good car.
‘‘It’s very important for us from a marketing and sporting point of view to have local heroes,’’ Larkin said.
‘‘There are a number of programmes we run to help not only develop younger drivers, but also to help those who are competing in our championship, to were the same as four nights ago — Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won bronze in the 100 finished seventh in this one — the Americans put a completely different trio on the stand.
Fred Kerley, Marvin Bracy and Trayvon Bromell dominated the 100. This time, it was Lyles, Bednarek, the Olympic silver medalist, and Knighton, who is now the youngest individual sprint medalist in worlds track history.
Knighton’s 19.49 earlier this year made him a slight favorite in this race and set up what was being touted as a rivalry of sorts with Lyles.
It was the 25-year-old Lyles who beat Knighton to the line last month at nationals and waved his finger as he crossed — a not-so-subtle message that he wasn’t giving in to his younger rival. compete in their home events. There are different initiatives we have in place.’’
Along with Paddon, there will also be local interest in how two-time Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen goes, with the Kiwi being given a Race Torque-run Skoda Fabia R5 to drive.
‘‘Shane is going to not only bring a lot of Kiwi fans out, but I’m very certain it will encourage a number of fans to come over from Australia as well,’’ Larkin said.
‘‘He is the biggest name in motorsport in Australia. He’s done a couple of test rallies so far and his performances were very impressive.’’
Meanwhile, Larkin says preparations are going well from his end for Rally NZ and said it will start with a bang, with the Super Special Stage on Thursday evening, September 29, at Auckland Domain.
But Lyles would be the first to concede that his biggest competition has been himself over the past few years. Once, he was seen as track’s solution to its Bolt problem — namely, what to do without an outsized personality to capture eyeballs.
But the pandemic hit. Lyles, who considers himself an entertainer at heart, suffered at traveling alone and competing in front of empty seats.
He was unflinching about his mental-health struggles and how difficult it was to not be able to compete alongside his brother, Josephus, who is on the U.S. relay pool this week.
But this week, the crowds were back and the trip to Oregon was easy. Lyles said he felt more ‘‘me’’ than he had in a while.
Then, he came out and ran like it.