Most sprinters are doing really well if their 200 time is 2.00x their 100 time. Lyles dips way under 2, indicating he may be better at 400 than 100.
Did he opt out of the 400 mentally at a young age because that's the event his brother specialized in?
I don't know if Noah is a better 400m runner than 100m runner (9.86 is still very good), but one thing I know for sure, he's not winning the 100m in Budapest if he can't win the US title in better than 10.00 in near perfect windless conditions tonight.
He gets out of the blocks fine in terms of reaction, but his pick-up and acceleration between meters 5 and 35 just isn't elite enough to factor globally in the 100. Works beautifully in the 200 where he can build his velocity in a more measured fashion into the turn, but that's not how the 100 works.
I think he's in the midst of doing mental gymnastics to convince himself of this 100m stuff because he believes it will lead to the 200m WR, but I'm not so sure. It didn't help him pre Tokyo and while I think he will still easily win in Budapest in the 200, I think the WR will come not through 100m focus but by staying healthy and playing to his strength which is his strength.
Watching him force the 100m stuff is a little painful and he was lucky it was a down year in the 100 and was even able to make the team.
Most sprinters are doing really well if their 200 time is 2.00x their 100 time. Lyles dips way under 2, indicating he may be better at 400 than 100.
Did he opt out of the 400 mentally at a young age because that's the event his brother specialized in?
I don't know if Noah is a better 400m runner than 100m runner (9.86 is still very good), but one thing I know for sure, he's not winning the 100m in Budapest if he can't win the US title in better than 10.00 in near perfect windless conditions tonight.
He gets out of the blocks fine in terms of reaction, but his pick-up and acceleration between meters 5 and 35 just isn't elite enough to factor globally in the 100. Works beautifully in the 200 where he can build his velocity in a more measured fashion into the turn, but that's not how the 100 works.
I think he's in the midst of doing mental gymnastics to convince himself of this 100m stuff because he believes it will lead to the 200m WR, but I'm not so sure. It didn't help him pre Tokyo and while I think he will still easily win in Budapest in the 200, I think the WR will come not through 100m focus but by staying healthy and playing to his strength which is his strength.
Watching him force the 100m stuff is a little painful and he was lucky it was a down year in the 100 and was even able to make the team.
always appreciate your commentary, thanks for adding that
michael johnson stopped running the 100 completely at age 26, when he ran his pr of 10.09
lyles turns 26 in a couple weeks, maybe he'll hang up the 100 after this season too
of note, lyles split a 45.6 at the penn relays in 2016, same year he went 10.16 and 20.09
if he suddenly got obsessed with the 400 (extremely unlikely), i think he'd put up similar times (43-high at least) to michael johnson in the 400
I don't know if Noah is a better 400m runner than 100m runner (9.86 is still very good), but one thing I know for sure, he's not winning the 100m in Budapest if he can't win the US title in better than 10.00 in near perfect windless conditions tonight.
He gets out of the blocks fine in terms of reaction, but his pick-up and acceleration between meters 5 and 35 just isn't elite enough to factor globally in the 100. Works beautifully in the 200 where he can build his velocity in a more measured fashion into the turn, but that's not how the 100 works.
I think he's in the midst of doing mental gymnastics to convince himself of this 100m stuff because he believes it will lead to the 200m WR, but I'm not so sure. It didn't help him pre Tokyo and while I think he will still easily win in Budapest in the 200, I think the WR will come not through 100m focus but by staying healthy and playing to his strength which is his strength.
Watching him force the 100m stuff is a little painful and he was lucky it was a down year in the 100 and was even able to make the team.
always appreciate your commentary, thanks for adding that
michael johnson stopped running the 100 completely at age 26, when he ran his pr of 10.09
lyles turns 26 in a couple weeks, maybe he'll hang up the 100 after this season too
of note, lyles split a 45.6 at the penn relays in 2016, same year he went 10.16 and 20.09
if he suddenly got obsessed with the 400 (extremely unlikely), i think he'd put up similar times (43-high at least) to michael johnson in the 400
Yeah I don't see why Noah couldn't be an excellent 400m runner - certainly nothing physical in the way. For him it would be a mindset he'd have to commit to - I think the one difference with Johnson is that he was always a 2/4 guy and never tried to convince himself he needed the 100 so he didn't really give up the 100 because he simply never cared about it. Ironically I think if Noah was to start dabbling more with the 400 and was able to get down to low 44's the WR in the 200 would be more likely than him trying to break 9.8 in the 100 and win global titles.