Seville, Alfred and Koech shine in London rain

LONDON: Oblique Seville left Olympic champion Noah Lyles chewing his dust on Saturday as the Jamaican blasted out of the blocks and kept the hammer down to win the London Diamond League 100 meters in a hot 9.86 seconds. Seville, so impressive through the rounds at last year’s Olympics before coming last in the final, roared into a two-meter lead after 20 meters and was never threatened as he came home clear, with Lyles finishing strongly, but not enough, for second in 10.00.

A sold-out 60,000 Olympic Stadium crowd braved early storms to watch some superb performances as athletes start to build toward September’s world championships in Tokyo.

Julien Alfred won the women’s 200m in a scorching personal best of 21.71 seconds, Briton Charlie Dobson was a surprise winner of the 400m, 18-year-old Kenyan Phanuel Kipkosgei Koech won the 1,500m and Mykolas Alekna won the discus with a Diamond League record of 71.70 meters.

As always, however, it was the 100m that was the center piece, with, as always, Lyles at the center of that.

The American, who had been struggling with an ankle injury, began his season in earnest last week with victory over 200m in Monaco and was in confident mood clad in a fetching mauve one-piece on Saturday.

However, it was the red blur of Seville that caught the eye after a brilliant pick-up stage that effectively settled the race by 25 meters.

“I am proud of how I ran among a stacked field. I was the only one to run under 10 seconds today, it is something special and phenomenal heading into a major championship,” said Seville, who has yet to turn his talent into individual gold on the world stage.

Lyles was also upbeat. “I feel great after that, I feel extremely healthy and I am feeling no pain,”