The speed show: Lyles beat Coleman, Tebogo was faster than Bolt and Bol’s world record

From March 1 to 3, in Glasgow, the Indoor World Athletics Championship will be held and the United States National Championship gave a preview of the great confrontation expected between Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman.

On the indoor track in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Lyles managed to beat Coleman in the 60 meters with a time of 6.43 and sent a strong message at the start of a season that will have the Paris Olympic Games as the big event: “If you can’t beat me here, you can’t beat me anywhere.”

Lyles, who had just won the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston, needed to set his personal best to finish second to Coleman (6.44), who holds the world record for 60 meters with 6.34. The two sprinters qualified for the Glasgow World Cup. Ronnie Baker completed the podium with 6.51.

“If I hadn’t faced Christian so many times, I couldn’t have increased my confidence enough to say, ‘I’m ready to come here and face everyone. ' Eight years I’ve been trying to work on my start, my acceleration, my first 60,” acknowledged the outdoor world champion in the 100 and 200 meters.

Lyles, 26, believes that having improved his start will allow him to get closer to the world records held by Usain Bolt. The Jamaican legend owns the marks in the 100 (9.58) and 200 (19.19), while the American’s best records in those distances are 9.83 and 19.31 (national record). Will he be able to overcome it?

Letsile Tebogo sprayed a Usain Bolt record

Although the 300 meters are not a distance that is part of the usual World Athletics competitions, the 30.69 that Letsile Tebogo established in the Simbine Curro Classic Shoot-Out did not go unnoticed.

The fact is that the 20-year-old, runner-up in the world in the 100 meters in Budapest, achieved the best world record in Pretoria (South Africa) and surpassed, for example, the 30.97 that Usain Bolt had achieved on May 27, 2010, in Ostrava (Czech Republic). Only two other sprinters managed to drop 31 seconds in the 300 meters: the American Michael Johnson (30.85 in Pretoria) and the South African Wayde Van Niekerk (30.81 in Ostrava).

In August 2020, at the Cali World Cup, Tebogo broke the youth world record by running the 100 meters in 9.91. The one born in Botswana has the minimum marks to compete in Paris 2024 in the 100, 200 and 400 meters.

Femke Bol shone again and lowered her world record

The Dutch Femke Bol, bronze medal in Tokyo 2020 in the 400 hurdles, will be another figure who will be present at the World Indoor Athletics Championship and will arrive in Glasgow with a new world record in the 400 meters indoors.

In the Dutch championship that took place in Apeldoorn, the world champion in the 400s with hurdles and 4x400s won with a time of 49.24 and dropped by two hundredths her own mark that was also on the same track.