Lyles registers 200m victory in Lausanne
lausanne — American sprinter Noah Lyles matched a season’s best time of 19.69sec in the men’s 200m as Birhanu Balew won a 5000m marred by final bend mayhem at the Lausanne Diamond League on Thursday.
Fresh from setting a best time of the year to capture the US 100m title last month the 20-yearold Lyles had enough up his sleeve to deny his compatriot Michael Norman (19.88).
After celebrating with an impromptu trackside dance Lyles said “19.69 is great but you can always improve”.
He added: “My life goals are big - I want to be as good if not better than Michael Johnson and Justin Gatlin.” In contrast to Lyles, Norman’s immediate ambition was altogether more modest. “I want to relax now and have some good Swiss ice cream.”
Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba sauntered to another 400m hurdle success. Samba registered the latest chapter in a golden season with his sixth Diamond League win to
add to his titles in Doha, Rome, Oslo, Stockholm, and Paris.
Last Saturday in the French capital he set the second-fastest time ever for the distance of 46.98sec. He couldn’t match that but he didnt need to as his 47.42 was good enough to deny Norway’s Karsten Warholm (47.94) and Yasmani Copello of Turkey.
“I started quicker than normal and the last 100m were difficult,” said Samba. “The aim for the season remains the Asian Games at the end of August,” he added.
In the 110m hurdles there was redemption for Sergey Shubenkov, the current world champion from Russia who was harshly ruled to have false started in Paris last weekend. —