You’re not the only one confused by the photo that has the world talking after the closest, most insane, finish in the 100m sprint the Olympics has ever seen.
World champion Noah Lyles roared to victory in 9.79 seconds on Monday morning (AEST) and there were just five one thousandths of a second separating him and silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
The world was forced to wait for several agonising moments before the technology showed the American’s name on the top of the timesheet — 9.784sec to Thompson’s 9.789sec.
Aerial and side on photos, however, appeared to suggest Thompson was the first to cross the line — thanks to his white track shoes — with American bronze medallist Fred Kerley also crossing ahead of Lyles with his snazzy orange kicks.
It’s left plenty asking why on Earth is Lyles celebrating his new title as the world’s fastest man?
The answer is of course simple.
Athletics results are measured by the first torso that crosses the line.
According to Olympic rules, a runner is considered to have finished a race when part of their body from the clavicle down crosses the finish line — something always considered to be the fairest measurement because of the different strides and leg lengths of runners.
So what separated Lyles and Thompson was the American’s torso lunge to the line, while Thompson’s dip was just slightly concave.
But his line-breaking right boot left plenty of Olympics fans convinced the Jamaican was robbed.
That doesn’t in any way detract from the widely-held view it was one of the best races in the history of the Games — the very first time that all runners went under 10 seconds (not including wind assisted races).
There were just 0.03 seconds between Lyles and the fourth-placed runner, Akani Simbine from South Africa.
It says a lot about how close the result was that a journalist asked the medallist if they should share the gold medal if measured at the same time to within hundredths of a second.
The other question, that keeps coming up is how did Lyles pull it off when he was so slow out of the blocks — his reaction time of 0.178 seconds was the equal slowest.
It was only in the final 10m that Lyles edged in front.
Photos show he had a lot of work to do at the 70m mark.
He came home like a freight train, but looking across from lane seven over to Thompson in lane three it was easy to see why he thought Thompson had won.
“We were waiting for the names to pop up. I told him, ‘I think you got that one’. I couldn’t really see what was going on over there,” he said as the world waited for the winner to be announced.
“I just had to keep running like I was going to win it. Something told me ‘you need to lean’. This is how close first and second is going to be.
“It was a crazy moment. I did think that Kishane had that. I was like, ‘I’m going to have to swallow my pride’, which I don’t have a problem doing.
“Everybody on the field came out knowing they could win this race. That’s the mindset we have to have. Iron sharpens iron.
“I saw my name and was like, ‘I didn’t do this against a slow crowd, I did this against the best of the best, on the biggest stage with the biggest pressure’.”
Lyles’ whole career may boil down to that famous lunge for the line, but he says it’s not something he has ever focused on.
“No, I do not practise dipping all that much,” he said.
“I would say I have a decent history with dipping at the line. Throughout my high-school career and stuff like that, a lot of races have come down to dips. I’ve been able to win.”
Briefly, ever so briefly, Thompson thought the glory could be his.
“I couldn’t see him, but I thought he was seeing me,” Thompson said of Lyles.
“He said, ‘Hey Kishane I thought you got it,’ and I said, ‘I am not sure’.
“This is the closest medal.”
It was almost cruel for Thompson to be asked if the medal should be shared between them.
“I think the sport is too competitive, no offence to any other sport. It’s too competitive for us to share a gold medal.” he said.
“I’m feeling very good, honestly. My body language will not show it because I am not an expressive guy, but I am glad.
“I know that Jamaica would have wanted me to get the gold, everybody love winners. I would have loved to win today, but big up to the whole field.”
In an astonishing race, defending champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy was fifth in 9.85sec, Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo sixth in 9.86sec, American Kenny Bednarek seventh in 9.88sec and Jamaican Oblique Seville eighth in 9.91sec.
Most of them will also be running in the 200m — and the world will be desperately hoping to see something as special as the 100m was on Monday morning.
There were no losers in a race like that.
Source Agencies
