“No shade to Noah Lyles, 9.79 in 2012 would have got you third” - Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green compare London and Paris Olympic finals

By Zahid Rashid Dar

Modified Sep 01, 2024 15:06 GMT

Justin Gatlin and Rodney Green credited Usain Bolt for pushing the 100m sprinters to fast times after running the blistering 9.58s at the 2009 World Championships. Comparing that era to the present-day sprinting, the two stated that Noah Lyles wouldn't have won the gold medal with his time of 9.79s if he were in the 100m final in 2012.

Bolt broke the 100m world record for the last time at the 2009 World Championships when he ran a blistering 9.58s. While no sprinter other than the Jamaican himself came anywhere close to the time, the world saw several frequent races with winners clocking 9.7s, a rarity in today's world. Only three races have seen times of 9.7s this year, one of them being the Olympic final.

Speaking on the latest episode of the podcast 'Ready Set Go', Rodney Green, who is a former Bahamian sprinter, said:

"Once we saw 9.5 from Bolt, that era after 2008, we probably seen the most 9.7s by a group of gentlemen Assafa Powell, Tyson Gay, Yohan Blake. It breeded a whole generation of athletes and no shade to Noah Lyles or anybody who was in that final. 9.79 in 2012 would have got you third." (30:39 onwards)

Justin Gatlin reminded Green that it was he who had come third in that 100m final with a time of 9.79s. Usain Bolt won the gold in an Olympic record time of 9.63s while Yohan Blake finished second in 9.75s. Interestingly, Lyles would have beaten Bolt with his time of 9.79s at the 2016 Olympic final, where Bolt won his third straight title in 9.81s.

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Justin Gatlin had picked Kishane Thompson over Noah Lyles for the 100m final

Athletics - Olympic Games Paris 2024: Noah Lyles and Kishane Thompson (Source: Getty)

Before the start of the Paris Olympics 2024, Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson had taken the world by storm, running a blistering 9.77s at the Jamaican Trials with ease. Many had him as a favorite over the reigning world champion Noah Lyles and so believed the 2004 Olympic champion Justin Gatlin as well.

Gatlin had predicted that if Thompson was ahead of Lyles near the 40-50 m mark, the American wasn't going to run down the fastest man of the year.

"If Kishane is in front of Noah at the 45-50 m mark, it's Kishane’s to win. I don't see Naoh running Kishane down. I'm only saying that because Kishane hasn't shown us the rest of what he can do," he said on his podcast 'Ready Set Go' [1:10:19 onwards]

However, Lyles did run down the field and edged Thompson by five-thousandths of a second. While Thompson took the silver, Fred Kerley settled for a bronze medal in the event after his silver in Tokyo.