Athletics-Thompson beats Lyles in Olympic final rematch in Silesia

By Trevor Stynes

SILESIA, Poland, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Kishane Thompson laid down a marker ahead of next month's world championships when the Jamaican came out on top in the highly-anticipated 100 metres against Olympic champion Noah Lyles at the Silesia Diamond League meeting on Saturday.

Thompson blasted out of the blocks and never looked like being beaten, while Lyles, with his typically slow start, ran strongly at the end but the Jamaican won in 9.87 seconds, with Lyles clocking 9.90, his season's best. Kenny Bednarek was third.

There were no world records but the sun-soaked crowd were treated to some fine performances, with Olympic and world champions fine-tuning before Tokyo in September.

Faith Kipyegon came agonisingly close to breaking the women's 3,000m world record and Keely Hodgkinson made a winning return in the 800m.

The men's sprint brought together American Lyles and Thompson for the first time since their unforgettable Olympic final last year in Paris, where Lyles beat his rival by five thousandths of a second.

Add Bednarek into the mix, who recently clashed with Lyles, and this was a race that nobody wanted to miss. The two Americans had a heated moment at the U.S. Championships earlier this month, when Lyles stared down Bednarek coming to the line and received a shove in return at the finish.

Lyles, whose season was delayed by an ankle injury, looked unperturbed by the defeat, happily signing autographs for fans, and was pleased to have broken 10 seconds for the first time this year.

"It is a great stepping stone. I needed to see a sub-10," Lyles said.

"I took out some really big heads today, people who run 9.7 and 9.8. The more I run, the better I am getting."

KIPYEGON CLOSE

Kenya's Kipyegon went after the 8:06.11 set in 1993 by China's Wang Junxia, leaving the rest of the field behind from the start, tucked in behind the pacemakers.

Kipyegon pushed on with more than two laps to go, driving for the line, but the 1,500m and mile world-record holder collapsed with exhaustion after coming in less than a second off the record, in 8:07.04.

"To be honest, I did not see the clock on the finish line because I was so tired," Kipyegon said.

"I saw the world-record red line during the race but today it was very hot."

In a high-calibre women's 400m which included seven of last year's Olympic finalists, Olympic champion Marileidy Paulino had the strongest finish to overtake Salwa Eid Naser in the closing metres, to repeat the 1-2 from Paris.

Olympic gold medallist Masai Russell looked in fine form in the 100m hurdles, leading from the start and winning in 12.19 seconds, ahead of fellow American Tonea Marshall, with world-record holder Tobi Amusan third.

The women's 800m brought the impressive return of Hodgkinson, in the Olympic champion's first competitive race since Paris last August after suffering a hamstring injury.

The Briton showed little rustiness, setting a world-lead time of 1:54.74 to win ahead of Kenya's Lilian Odira.

World champion Shericka Jackson set a season's best of 22.17 seconds to edge American Brittany Brown in the women's 200m, and world-record holder Karsten Warholm stormed to men's 400m hurdles victory in 46.28 seconds, the third-fastest time ever.

Mondo Duplantis, unsurprisingly, won the pole vault but, five days after he broke the world record for the 13th time, the Swede, and the Polish crowd, had to settle for a leap of 6.10 metres, 20cm short of his latest record set in Budapest on Tuesday.

The final race of the day saw Melissa Jefferson-Wooden continue her unbeaten streak over 100m this year, with the American finishing ahead of Jamaican Tia Clayton in a time of 10.66.

World champion and Olympic silver medallist Sha'Carri Richardson finished sixth, and has yet to win over this distance in 2025.