Noah Riles, 26, has qualified for the Paris Olympics with the world’s fastest time of the year in the men’s 200 meters.
The 26-year-old won the men’s 200-meter final in 19.53 seconds at the U.S. Track and Field Trials for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, U.S., on Tuesday (June 30).
After running 19.60 in the semifinals the day before to lower Kenneth Bednarek’s (USA) season’s best of 19.67 by 0.07 seconds, Liles dropped it further to 19.53 in the final to cement his status as the fastest 200-meter man alive.
Bednarek was second in 19.59 and Irian Knighton third in 19.77 to join Liles in qualifying for Paris.
Liles won the men’s 100 meters in 9.83 seconds at the U.S. Trials on Thursday, and then took the top spot in the 200 meters on Friday to start his quest for a Paris Games double.
Liles won back-to-back 200-meter titles at the 2019 World Championships in Doha and 2022 in Eugene.
However, she finished third in the 200 meters at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
“If I had won the 200 meters in Tokyo, I might have stagnated,” he said after qualifying for the 100 meters in Paris, “but my disappointing result in Tokyo fueled my desire.”
Since last year, Liles has also made the leap to the top of the 100 meters.
At the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, he won gold in the men’s 100-meter, 200-meter and 400-meter relays.
It had been eight years since Usain Bolt (Jamaica) won a triple at the World Championships in Beijing in 2015.
Having established himself as Bolt’s heir apparent, Liles is now looking to win his first Olympic gold medal.
“He could try to win a quadruple in Paris by competing in the 100-, 200- and 400-meter relays, as well as the 1,600-meter relay,” the Associated Press said.
Defending U.S. women’s 100-meter champion Shirley Richardson had a disappointing performance in the 200 meters.
Richardson finished fourth in the 200-meter final on Tuesday with a time of 22.16 seconds, failing to qualify for the Paris Olympics, which is reserved for the top three finishers.
The final was won by Gabriel Thomas, the “world’s fastest biologist,” in 21.81 seconds.
Thomas studied neurobiology and international health at Harvard University and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in infectious diseases at the University of Texas at Austin.
Thomas, who won bronze in the women’s 200 meters at Tokyo, will go for gold in Paris.
Brittany Brown (21.90) and Mackenzie Long (21.91) beat Richardson to punch her ticket to Paris in the 200 meters. 메이저사이트