American Noah Lyles smashes Usain Bolt’s 200m record – before being told he had only run 185m in a mix-up over using the right STARTING LINE… with Steve Cram left laughing in disbelief!
American sprinter Noah Lyles briefly appeared to have broken Usain Bolt’s world record for the 200 metres – only to discover bungling organisers had started his run from the wrong place.
Lyles put in what looked like a sensational run timed at 18.91 seconds at the Inspiration Games in Florida, a time that would have smashed the 19.19 second best set by Jamaican star Bolt back in 2009.
But given that Lyles’ fastest time previously had only been 19.50, questions were immediately asked, not least by the runner himself who looked perplexed at the finish line.
Noah Lyles was clocked at a world record time for the 200 metres… until it was discovered bungling organisers started his run from the wrong place
World champion Lyles, running on his own in Florida but simultaneously with other athletes in Europe, appeared to have smashed Usain Bolt’s world record
And it transpired a few minutes later that Lyles had started from the wrong line marked on the track and had only run 185 metres instead of 200.
‘You can’t be playing with my emotions like this… got me in the wrong line smh [shaking my head],’ Lyles tweeted afterwards.
Commentator Steve Cram was left astonished when the time flashed up on screen, saying ‘that cannot be right, that cannot be right’ with laughter heard in the background.
The mix-up will come as a major embarrassment to organisers of the Inspiration Games, who had arranged for three sprinters to run the 200m simultaneously in different locations with athletes currently unable to compete together because of Covid-19.
The start guns were fired at the same time but world champion Lyles, running in Florida, appeared to round the bend of the track much quicker than his competitors Christophe Lemaitre and Churandy Martina, running in Switzerland and Holland respectively.
And Lyles crossed the finish line some way ahead, placing his hands on his head in disbelief before the unwelcome news of the starting block mix-up broke.
Lyles’ younger brother Josephus, also an athlete, tweeted: ‘Is this real??’
To compound matters, Lyles’ time was then removed from the race results and the £7,930 ($10,000) prize awarded to Lemaitre instead.