Olympic 100 metres champion Noah Lyles feared photo finish had gone against him

Newly-crowned Olympic champion Noah Lyles revealed he thought Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson had beaten him to 100 metres gold following their photo finish in Paris.

Every occupant of the 80,000-seat Stade de France seemed to inhale at once before a roar erupted as the 27-year-old American’s name appeared first on the screen, then announced to the stadium as the victor by just five thousandths of a second, in a winning time of 9.79.784 seconds.

The 27-year-old rang the victory bell hard, fait accompli after setting out to settle the ‘fastest man’ debate once and for all in France.

Lyles, whose US team-mate Fred Kerley took bronze, said: “I knew that when the time came, for me to be able to say ‘this is the final, this is where I need to put it together’ I was going to do it.

“I did think (Thompson) had it at the end. I went up to him after, while we were waiting, and I even said ‘I think you’ve got that, good going,’ and then my name popped up and I’m like ‘oh my gosh, I’m amazing’.

“I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t ready to see it (his name) and that’s the first time I’ve ever said that. I wasn’t ready to see it.

“He was quite a few lanes down, he was in four, I was in seven so it was hard for me to picture where we were.”

The American world 100m and 200m champion’s triumph comes three summers after he entered the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics as the 200m favourite and world champion – but only claimed bronze.

Afterwards, he opened up about a lifelong battle with depression and the challenges of balancing the benefits of antidepressant medication with side effects that led to weight gain and affected his ability to perform – ultimately electing to wean off the treatment before those Games.

Earlier this week, he acknowledged