Worldletics wrote:
Yes.
The old rules prioritized placing the top seeds in the middle, 3-4-5-6.
It is now understood that having a gentler bend is more important, eg lane 7 is preferred over lane 3 in the new rules.
Worldletics wrote:
Yes.
The old rules prioritized placing the top seeds in the middle, 3-4-5-6.
It is now understood that having a gentler bend is more important, eg lane 7 is preferred over lane 3 in the new rules.
Lyles is a jerk, a big baby and a sore loser, all of which NBC flaunted for months with the view that the dumbed down Disney public would love Lyles' track version of end zone dancing. And when it bit them in the tush, they made it worse by pathetic pandering. Those shots of Lyles in the wheelchair are rich. Can someone who is overcome by covid really run 19.70? He and NBC played it for all it was worth. Contrast Mr. Lyles with all the classy, humble athletes like Sydney et Al. When Syd was given a tiara to put on after her race, she politely gave it back. Boasting is distasteful to her. Lyles is an embarrassment. He didn't even show up for the post race press conference. That alone says it all.
Oldenoughtoknow wrote:
Lyles is a jerk, a big baby and a sore loser, all of which NBC flaunted for months with the view that the dumbed down Disney public would love Lyles' track version of end zone dancing. And when it bit them in the tush, they made it worse by pathetic pandering. Those shots of Lyles in the wheelchair are rich. Can someone who is overcome by covid really run 19.70? He and NBC played it for all it was worth. Contrast Mr. Lyles with all the classy, humble athletes like Sydney et Al. When Syd was given a tiara to put on after her race, she politely gave it back. Boasting is distasteful to her. Lyles is an embarrassment. He didn't even show up for the post race press conference. That alone says it all.
Lyles' may put his foot in his mouth occasionally (NBA champs aren't world champs, most notably), but I've never thought him a jerk, big baby, or sore loser.
Trying too hard to be the cool guy at times? Maybe (probably).
Personally, I appreciate the nerdiness more than the bravado, but the latter has never seemed mean-spirited to me, and I can't remember him ever being a sore loser/big baby.
As for milking an illness (potentially to explain away an unrelated poor performance), I'm not convinced. It's certainly possible, but assuming the covid diagnosis is legit, he was at least sick enough to test himself days before the 200m final.
Even if he rebounded to full health the next day, he'd have lost pace vs. having never been sick at all. Seeing his kick sputter with 75m remaining, and seeing him so out-of-sorts post race leaves me wondering whether he even felt 100% in the blocks.
I do agree that 19.7 seems awfully fast for a sick Lyles to run, but the idea that you or I know enough about Lyles' specific situation to conclude anything at all about whether he could or couldn't run that fast while ill (or recovering) is absurd.
That said, had Tebogo run a little slower, I think I would have viewed his win differently. Rightly or wrongly, I view Lyles as a consistent sub 19.6 guy at his best, and had Tebogo run slower, I'd view him as lucky to avoid a 100% Noah.
But even the very best version of Lyles, on the sport's greatest stage, doesn't automatically run 19.4, and Tebogo might very well have beaten the best version of Noah Lyles that night.