Lyles beats fellow American Coleman in 100m photo finish

Noah Lyles launched himself from near the back of the field to beat fellow American Christian Coleman by just 0.006secs and win the 100 metres at the Shanghai Diamond League on Saturday.

Lyles's blistering 9.86sec was the best time this year and a personal best, and lays down a marker ahead of the world championships in the autumn and the Tokyo Olympics next summer.

The 21-year-old, part of a new generation of American sprinters, ducked to the line with a glance to his left to Coleman. A photo finish confirmed Lyles had won.

Third was South Africa's Akani Simbine and fourth last year's Shanghai victor, Britain's Reece Prescod.

It is early days in the season, but Lyles and his rivals are already eyeing the Doha world championships in September while the 2020 Tokyo Games also loom.

Lyles, the 200m Diamond trophy winner last year, celebrated wildly and said: "In pre-season I'd taken a couple of losses, a couple of second places, even on my home track, so I really wanted to come out here and told my coach I wanted to do something.

"I told him that today is the day, today is the day we put it all together."
Asked by AFP what message his nail-biting win sent to the rest ahead of a crucial 14 months, Lyles said: "I really wanted to make sure that this year everybody knows that I'm a 100m and 200m runner, not just a 200m runner who's kind of running the 100m."
"My auntie died yesterday. But then I asked myself, 'what would she want?' "And she would want me to race."