(Budapest) American Noah Lyles, who is aiming for a 100m-200m double, succeeded in the first part of his challenge by becoming world champion in the straight line, in 9.83 s, on Sunday in Budapest.

Lyles, already the reigning double world champion in the 200m, improved his personal best by three hundredths and equaled the best world performance of the season to win ahead of the young Batswana Letsile Tebogo and the Briton Zharnel Hughes, both credited with a time of 9.88 s and decided by thousandths of a second.

If he wins the 200m, Noah Lyles would manage to complete the 100m-200m double at the World Championships for the first time since Jamaican legend Usain Bolt in 2015.

The world title holder, the American Fred Kerley, had been eliminated in the semi-finals, like the reigning Olympic champion, the Italian Marcell Jacobs.

It allows the United States to retain the title of world champion in the men’s 100m for the fourth time in a row, since the end of the reign of Usain Bolt, after Justin Gatlin, Christian Coleman and Kerley.

In total, adding the men’s 4x100m relay gold shared in 2019, this is the fourth world title of Lyles’ career.

Tebogo, double world junior 100m champion (2021 and 2022) and promise of world athletics, becomes the first African sprinter to secure a place on the men’s 100m world podium in history, at 20 years old .

Less than three hours earlier, Lyles had already posted the fastest time in the semi-finals (9.86s).