Noah Lyles wins gold for U.S. in 100m by 0.005 of a second - ESPN

SAINT-DENIS, France — Since last August, Noah Lyles has stood firm and unequivocal in his belief that the title of «world's fastest man» belongs to him.

On Sunday night at the Stade de France, he proved it.

With a personal-best 9.784-second time that edged him past a world-class field full of elite sprinters, Lyles walked away with his first Olympic gold medal in the 100-meter final.

He earned the victory by beating the man with the world's fastest time this year, Jamaica's Kishane Thompson, by 0.005 of a second.

«We were waiting for the names to pop up, and I'm going to be honest, I came over [to Thompson] and I was like: 'I think you got that one, big dawg!'» Lyles said in his postrace news conference. «Something said I need to lean, and I was like, 'I'm going to lean,' because it's that type of race.»

It was the closest 100-meter final since at least Moscow in 1980 — or perhaps ever. Back then, Great Britain's Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in 10.25 seconds in an era when timing didn't go down to the thousandths of a second.

According to Omega, the official timekeeper of all Olympics events, at the 65.15-meter mark, Lyles hit his peak speed, and he was trailing at that point. That peak reached 43.6 km/h or 27.1 mph, and he maintained that rate the rest of the race.

«What's crazy is my [biomechanist] Ralph Mann, before I left for Paris, he's like, 'This is how close first and second is going to be away from each other,'» Lyles said, holding his hand up with a narrow space between his index finger and thumb. «I can't believe how right he was.»

Lyles is the first American to win the celebrated race since Justin Gatlin in 2004.

If Lyles makes the 200-meter finals Wednesday night, he'll have an opportunity to