Lyles will deliver sprint show — but not everyone will like it

TOKYO: Noah Lyles revels in being a showman but the antics the Olympic 100 meters champion do on occasion upset rivals and officials. They will watch closely to see how the American behaves as he defends his 100m and 200m world titles in Tokyo.

Lyles, 28, comes into the world championships bidding to emulate Usain Bolt’s four successive global 200m crowns — and he was boosted by a thrilling win over Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo in the Diamond League final last month.

Lyles said he would head to Tokyo “with a lot of energy.”

His track exploits — the Zurich win sealed a record-breaking sixth Diamond League track trophy — and lively personality have gained Lyles the recognition he has long craved in the US.

A documentary series “Untitled: The Noah Lyles Project,” a prominent role in the Netflix series “Sprint” and an appearance on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” have raised his profile.

That kind of mainstream coverage is something which World Athletics chief Sebastian Coe said he hopes other American track and field athletes will attract with the Los Angeles Olympics just three years away.

Lyles loves putting on a show and before the Olympics in Paris last year he told GQ Sport the challenge for track and field was to persuade the public globally that the sport was also “entertainment.”

His predecessor as the dominant force in men’s sprinting, Usain Bolt, famously used his arms to replicate a lightning bolt before he raced.

The American goes way beyond that.

He even received a yellow card warning ahead of the Olympic 200m final last year for his over-exuberant entrance into the Stade de France, roaring like a lion and hitting his lane box so hard the number toppled to the ground.

Lyles — who left the track in a