The third day of track and field action at Stade de France brought on of the most electric gold medal moments in Olympic history as American Noah Lyles won the men’s 100m final in the smallest margin in history. Lyles earned a new piece of hardware in the event but also undisputed bragging rights as the “world’s fastest man.”
Here’s a recap of day 3 on the track at Stade de France:
- Sunday night’s showdown in the men’s 100m final will go down in Olympic infamy as Noah Lyles used every tool in his arsenal to run a 9.79 and win the gold in a photo finish against Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson, who also ran 9.79. The race was decided by five-thousandths of a second (9.784 and 9.789). American Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81 and claimed the bronze. After dealing with shaky starts in qualifying, Lyles came out of the blocks with one of the slowest reaction times and used his second-half racing dynamics to close up the gap. Lyles edged Thomson with one final lean at the line, which was confirmed after a photo finish review.
- Tomorrow’s women’s 800m final lineup is set as Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson posted the fastest time in the semifinal (1:56.86) and will be joined by Kenya’s Mary Moraa (1:57.86) who won her semifinal, with Ethiopia’s Worknesh Mesele grabbing a spot in the final with a 1:58.06. Rounding out the rest of Monday’s group are Ethiopia’s Tsige Duguma (1:57.47), Saint Vincent’s Shafiqua Maloney (1:57.59), American Juliette Whittaker (1:57.76), Russia’s Prudence Sekgodiso (1:57.57) and France’s Renelle Lamote (1:57.78).
- A highly anticipated showdown in the men’s 1500m final will likely be the talk Stade de France on Tuesday as Jakob Ingebrigsten (3:32.38) and Josh Kerr (3:32.46) punched their tickets after cruising through an impressive quarterfinal. Despited a stacked field in the final, the defending Olympic champion (Ingebrigsten) and the defending world champion (Kerr) look to be ones to watch on the final turn of the bell lap. Americans Cole Hocker, Yared Nuguse and Hobbs Kessler be among the finalists along with Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, Great Britain’s Neil Gourley and Italy’s Pietro Arese.
- The men’s 400m is taking shape as American Michael Norman coasted to a season’s best of 44.10, with teammate Quincy Hall also earning a semifinal bid with 44.28 as Trinidad and Tobago’s Jereem Richards powered through with a 44.31. The field is wide open as defending champion Steven Gardiner of The Bahamas pulled out because of injuries.
- Canada’s Ethan Katzberg opened the men’s hammer throw with an Olympic record 84.12m and did not face serious competition for the rest of the event as he won the gold. No other competitor threw past the 80m mark, with Hungary’s Bence Halasz (79.97m) and Ukraine’s Mykhaylo Kokhan (79.39) taking silver and bronze.
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