Olympic champion Noah Lyles will face Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson in a highly anticipated 100m showdown at the Diamond League meet in Chorzow, Poland, on Saturday.
The race will be a rematch of last year’s Olympic final in Paris, where Lyles narrowly beat Thompson by just five-thousandths of a second. Thompson, who missed the 2023 World Championships, has been in top form this year, clocking a world-leading 9.75 seconds at the Jamaican trials — the sixth-fastest time in history.
Lyles comes into the race looking to bounce back from a surprise defeat to Jamaican sprinter Oblique Seville at the London Diamond League. His competition in Silesia will also include fellow Americans Kenny Bednarek, Christian Coleman, Lindsey Courtney and Trayvon Bromell, as well as South Africa’s Akani Simbine.
Tensions may be high after Lyles and Bednarek clashed at the US trials, where Bednarek accused Lyles of “unsportsmanlike” behaviour for turning to stare at him as he crossed the finish line in the 200m.
