Noah Lyles clocks 9.88-second 100m victory, his fastest time since 2024 Olympics: ‘I’m here to win’
Noah Lyles stormed to a 9.88-second victory in the men’s 100-meter in Thursday’s Rome Diamond League event — his fastest time run since winning the 2024 Olympics title.
In what was only his second race over the distance this season, Lyles showcased his outstanding top-end mechanics to close on the fast-starting Jordan Anthony, his training partner, and a bag his first Diamond League 100m win since July 2024.
This victory is significant for Lyles, who struggled with a groin injury last season but recovered to star in the World Championships, winning 100m bronze plus 200m gold and 4x100m relay gold.
In Rome on Thursday, the 28-year-old took down a field including Olympic champions Letsile Tebogo and Lamont Marcell Jacobs, plus 60m World Indoor champion Anthony, who had beaten him at U.S. indoors earlier this year.
All those men were among the five who broke 10 seconds, with second-place Emmanuel Eseme setting a Cameroon national record by running 9.94s.
Lyles won with daylight, producing the second-quickest time of 2026, with only Kayinsola Ajayi, the Nigerian of Auburn University, clocking faster (9.84s) this year.
Lyles won with daylight over his rivals (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP via Getty Images)
“I had a great finish,” Lyles said. “I can go again. Who want’s to go? I am not showing (up) anywhere to lose. I am here to win. Ten metres before the finish line I knew the race was over. I was thinking about how I was going to celebrate it.”
Julian Alfred produced a dominant display in the women’s 200m, running 21.93s into a solid tailwind (+1.3m/s) to win ahead of Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. The American clocked 22.17s for second place, starting strong from lane seven, one inside Alfred.
The pair were level at 80m but the St Lucian’s top-end speed told on the home straight. “I wanted to go a bit faster but I will take the win,” she said after. “I am healthy and a lot stronger now and that’s why I could push a bit extra in the second part of the race.”
They are at slightly different points in their season though. Alfred holds the 200m world lead with her 21.86s run from the end of April, whereas this was Jefferson-Wooden’s first individual race since winning 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay gold at last September’s World Championships in Tokyo, Japan. There she emulated the legendary Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in completing the sprint triple.
Alfred produced a dominant display in the women’s 200m (Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP via Getty Images)
Elsewhere in the Italian capital, Henriette Jaeger won the women’s 400m race in 49.60s, one of four women to break the 50-second barrier.
Keely Hodgkinson, the 800m Olympic champion, opened her outdoor season over one lap and lowered her personal best by 0.35s, running 51.14s out of lane three for seventh place. The Brit is targeting the 800m outdoor world record this summer before defending her European crown, off the back of a stellar winter which included a first world indoor gold and the 800m short track world record.
Rising javelin star Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage laid down another marker. The 23-year-old Sri Lankan threw a huge 92.62m with his second round effort to win the opening event of the night — it’s the longest javelin throw since Arshad Nadeem’s Olympic record in August 2024 (92.97m) and moves Pathirage up to eighth on the all-time list.
“I tried my best to throw the national record. Winning today feels like a Sri Lankan festival,” he said, having bettered his own personal best by more than three metres to become the first Sri Lankan into the coveted 90m club.
A remarkable 13 personal bests were achieved from a field of 18 athletes in the women’s 5,000m, a race won by Likina Amebaw in a world-leading 14:18.41s time. She led an Ethiopian sweep of spots first through seventh place, while further down the field there were national records for Winfred Yavi of Bahrain (14:30.06s) and France’s Sarah Madeleine (14:37.80s).