Lyles makes good, takes world title in 100 meters

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Noah Lyles captured the 100-meter world championship Sunday, finishing in 9.83 seconds for a victory that reshuffled the deck for next year's Olympics and cements him as the world's No. 1 sprinter.

It was a victory that maybe only he saw coming. The 200-meter specialist, who will defend his title in that event later this week, barely qualified for the shorter race after battling with COVID in the leadup to U.S. nationals last month.

More recently, he posted on social media that he could run 9.65 seconds, a thought that defending champion Fred Kerley scoffed at, saying if Lyles did that, he'd run faster.

But Kerley didn't make it out of the semifinal round and Lyles' closest competition in the final were Letsile Tebogo, a 20-year-old from Botswana, who finished in 9.873, .001 ahead of Britain's Zharnel Hughes.

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