Lyles' record-setting run in Atlanta sets off silent alarm in sleepy men's 100m season

Shout out to South African sprinter Akani Simbine, for running a world-leading 9.90 to win the men's 100 metres at the Atlanta City Games last Saturday, and restoring a hint of order to the world list in the track and field's highest-profile discipline. 

Before Simbine's breakout run, the world leading time belonged to Christian Miller, a high school senior from Florida who ran 9.93 back in April. Other early entrants to this season's sub 10-second club included Kendal Williams, a past world junior champion, and Brandon Hicklin, a former NCAA star in his rookie year on the pro circuit.

They're all fine sprinters, obviously. Wind-legal results don't lie. But they're not the needle-moving superstars we might have expected to put up big numbers in late May of an Olympic year. No eye-catching 100-metre results yet from established Americans like Fred Kerley or Christian Coleman, even with the Diamond League Prefontaine Classic, slated for this Saturday in Eugene, Oregon.

If you asked me for one word to describe top-tier elite men's 100-metre sprinting as we head into U.S. Memorial Day weekend, I'd use "dormant." 

What, then, do we make of Noah Lyles' blistering 150-metre run in Atlanta? Lyles, who won the 100/200 double in Budapest last summer, and has emerged as the main character in NBC's pre-Olympic ad campaign, finished in 14.41 seconds to equal Tyson Gay's American record. So if the men's 100 metres is like a volcano that has yet to erupt, Lyles' record-setting run could be the puffs of smoke warning us to brace for an explosion.

Take a bow, <a href="https://twitter.com/LylesNoah?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@LylesNoah</a>