- 100m gold to Lyles - Hartmann out in the semi-finals
After a photo finish, Noah Lyles is now both World Champion and Olympic gold medalist over 100 meters. The 27-year-old American sprinted to victory in Saint-Denis, Paris, in 9.79 seconds.
Lyles is the first American to win the 100-meter Olympic gold since Justin Gatlin's victory 20 years ago in Athens. In front of rapper Snoop Dogg and approximately 70,000 fans at the Stade de France, Lyles held up his name plate in triumph and danced across the track.
Tokyo Olympic Champion Finishes Fifth
Silver was won by joint fastest Jamaican sensation, Kenneth Thompson, while bronze went to American Fred Kerley in 9.81 seconds. Kerley was the silver medalist in Tokyo in 2021. Italy's Marcell Jacobs, the Tokyo Olympic champion and European champion, finished fifth in 9.85 seconds.
German sprinter Joshua Hartmann missed the final, finishing seventh in his semifinal in 10.16 seconds. He would have needed one of the top two spots or a faster time to advance. The South African Akani Simbine won the heat in 9.87 seconds, with Botswana's Letsile Tebogo also advancing in 9.91 seconds.
Hartmann will next compete in the 200 meters, where he holds the German record. The heats are scheduled for Monday morning. He and Owen Ansah, who became the first German sprinter to break 10 seconds with a time of 9.99 seconds in late June, are both set to compete in the German 4x100m relay team in Paris, which won bronze at the European Championships in Rome.
In other medal events, German athletes went home empty-handed. Christina Honsel finished sixth in the high jump with a clearance of 1.95 meters, while Ukraine's Yaroslava Mahuchikh won gold with a jump of 2.00 meters. In the hammer throw, Merlin Hummel placed tenth with a throw of 76.03 meters, while American Ethan Katzberg set a new world record with a throw of 84.12 meters in his first attempt.
Lyles' victory in the 100-meter race makes him the United States of America's most recent Olympic gold medalist in this event, following Justin Gatlin's triumph in Athens 20 years ago. The upcoming 200 meters event will see Hartmann and Ansah, who broke the German 10-second barrier, compete for their country in the 4x100m relay, aiming to bring home another medal for the United States of America in Paris.
