Lyles beats Olympic champion Tebogo on 200m return
Lyles won the 100m at the Olympics in Paris in 2024
- Published
Noah Lyles beat Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo in the men's 200m at the Diamond League meet in Monaco.
Botswana's Tebogo won the Olympic 200m final last year, with it emerging after the race that Lyles, who came third, had tested positive for Covid.
Tebogo went into the race in Monaco having set a world leading time of 19.76 seconds when he won the 200m at the last Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 5 July.
Olympic 100m champion Lyles had not raced since a 400m run in April and had last competed over 200m 338 days previously.
But the 27-year-old impressively held on to win in 19.88 as Tebogo came second in 19.97.
"It was a great race, I'm really glad to be healthy," said Lyles, who had not raced over 100m or 200m this season prior to Monaco.
"This shows I'm still in the game.
"I put myself in the fire for that one coming back against Tebogo. But I didn't feel any pressure, I don't see any reason to put pressure on myself - that's what we love to do."
Tebogo, 22, said he was "disappointed" in his performance but now has an "idea of what to work on".
Sweden's Armando Duplantis won the men's pole vault with 6.05m but missed out in his attempt at adding a centimetre to the world record height of 6.28m, while Emmanuel Wanyonyi, of Kenya, set a world-leading 1:41.44 in the men's 800m.
Dutchwoman Femke Bol impressed in the 400m hurdles with a world-leading 51.95 as she beat Americans Dalilah Muhammad, who was second in 52.58, and third-placed Anna Cockrell (52.91).
"Running 51 is always very special, I don't do that every day," said Bol. "I am feeling good so far this season, I had a great start to it."
St Lucia's Julien Alfred put in a dominant performance in the women's 100m as the Olympic champion won in 10.79.
The next Diamond League event will take place in the UK for a sold-out London Athletics Meet on 19 July.
The finals will take place in Zurich on 27 and 28 August - just over a fortnight before the start of the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.