WORLDS EUGENE 2022 – Lyles alone in the world in 19″31: the American becomes the 3rd performer of all time!

Michael Johnson has just been erased from American shelves. Friday in Eugene, Noah Lyles not only won a second world title in the 200m after the Doha Worlds, but he wrote history, setting the third best time of all time in 19 “31 (+0.4m / s ), a hundredth better than that of his illustrious compatriot Michael Johnson.

Author of a perfect race and a final stretch where he left his opponents far in the rear view mirror, Noah Lyles beat his two compatriots Kenneth Bednarek (19″77, SB) and Erriyon Knighton (19″80) to offer to the American public a second hat-trick, after the one obtained in the 100m. Lyles had already set the fastest time in the semi-finals, but this final takes him to another dimension and now places him within reach of Usain Bolt’s world record (19″19).

Only Bolt, twice, and his fellow Jamaican Yohan Blake (19.26), have now run faster than Lyles on the half-lap. Knighton, who made an impression by running in 19.49 in the spring at just 18 years old, faster than Bolt at the same age, climbed on his first world podium, a year after finishing at the foot of the Olympic podium.