NOAH LYLES had ants in his pants, a spring in his step and nothing but gold in his eyes.
While his seven rivals for the title of the world’s fastest man chilled out on the starting line, this hyperactive American showman raced half way up the track, leapt up and down and beat his chest when they announced his name.
You feared that the world champion and favourite might have shot his bolt before this blue-riband race had even started – especially when he trailed the field almost halfway through.
But Lyles switched on the after-burners and dipped at the finishing line in a personal best time of 9.784secs – five thousandths of a second in front of his rival Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
Then Lyles, 27, had to wait for longer than the race actually took before he was revealed as the winner.
Suddenly it was Noah’s Arc de Triomphe in the French capital.
Lyles is a breathless self-publicist, the star of a Netflix documentary, with braids in his hair and paint on his fingernails.
He might now become a global star to emulate Usain Bolt, the world-record holder and three-time Olympic 100m champion.
Bolt used to win these stellar events at a canter but for Lyles it was as tight as a gnat’s back passage.
The Florida man was stone-last after 40m but then kicked into action for the night of his life.
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These are sport’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-them men. And that winning margin – just a half of a hundredth of a second – is the difference between glory and heartache.
And this is one of sport’s greatest spectacles. The deathliest of hushes when they crouch at the blocks, penetrated by the loudest of bangs from the starting pistol, followed by the maddest of dashes for the line.
The Stade de France was rammed to its 67,000 Olympic capacity and these were the hottest tickets in town.
A stunning light show had preceded the race on a lightning-fast purple track.
Lyles and Thompson – who had clocked the fastest time of 2024 – had been expected to contest gold and silver and so it proved.
It was the fastest field ever – Jamaica’s Oblique Seville was eighth and last in 9.91secs.
And former 400m champion Michael Johnson declared it the ‘greatest of all time’, adding ‘you could throw a blanket over the finishing line. We didn’t even know who won for a few minutes’.
Lyles’ fellow American Fred Kerley won bronze to add to the silver he claimed in Tokyo three years ago.
In the semi-finals, there was heartbreak for Britain’s mullet-man Louie Hinchliffe, who had beaten Lyles in Saturday’s heat but who paid for a sluggish start and came in third behind Seville and the world champion in 9.97sec, failing to qualify as a fastest loser.
But Yorkshireman Hinchliffe, 22, promised to make the final in Los Angeles in 2028.
Hinchliffe said: “It was a good experience but I’ve definitely got a lot to learn. I should have been more relaxed going into it and I was a bit tense at the end. There were a lot of mistakes.
“I am disappointed. I could have made it a bit easier to make the final.
“I will come back stronger next year. I will not regress. It’s my first year on the scene.
“Definitely, definitely LA, I will be there in the final – and there are a lot of World Championships between then and now.
“But it was a sub-10-second run. I didn’t completely fold.”
And his fellow Brit Zharnel Hughes – a world bronze medalist last year – was way off the pace after a hamstring injury, finishing sixth in the final semi in 10.01sec.
Hughes, who goes again in the 200m, said: “I had a hamstring injury. It is not the easiest thing to come back from.
“Everything had to be rushed. After the injury you start to get the treatment right away. Race sharpness is my issue.
“If we had more races, I am a better performer than this. Last year we ended with 9.88 on the podium and with a bronze. I know what I am capable of.
“I had to be battling with an injury. It kind of sucks, last minute just before the Olympics. But I am a fighter. I’m very determined and that’s why I wanted to give it a go.
“I’m going back to the Village. I am not going to stick around for the final. It makes no sense. It will just make you upset. As a competitive athlete, you want to be a part of the mix. I rarely miss out on finals. So this one is hard to swallow.”
Hughes, as it happened, missed a classic.
Lyles was determined that the world would know his name after this night.
It is likely that we’ll never hear the end of him now.
