Here they come!!!

After an epic light show in the Stade de France, the athletes are out and ready to go.

Kishane Thompson lets out an almighty roar as he arrives, Fred Kerley pats his chest, while Noah Lyles leaps up and down.

Marcell Jacobs, the defending champion, holds his hands aloft.

Allison Curbishley
Former GB 400m runner on BBC Radio 5 Live

Noah Lyles does come out with some lines where you sit back and think, 'Really?' He is the one everyone wants to beat, not because he is the fastest but because he has been so brash.

He has put up the slowest times he has ran this year, and he would not have been happy, he would have had a lot of work to do with his coach on the warm up track. But he did come out and look a better athlete in the semi-final.

Harry Poole
BBC Sport in Paris

A quite spectacular light show begins just before the men's 100m finalists are welcomed out into the stadium, with the crowd holding up coloured lights as darkness falls at the Stade de France.

Here they come. The atmosphere, already great throughout so far, has gone to a different level.

Noah Lyles sprints out to huge cheers.

Michael Johnson
Four-time Olympic gold medallist athlete on BBC TV

This is the one. Everybody wants to see it. Everybody wants to know who is the fastest in the world.

We came into this championships with so many characters, but now it's Kishane Thompson's to lose.

Noah Lyles will have something to say about that, so will Oblique Seville.

Harry Poole
BBC Sport in Paris

We have dramatic skies overhead as the sun sets behind the end of the stadium where the men's 100m finalists will soon walk out.

Golden skies, but for whom?

It's a wide-open race for sporting immortality.

The crowd are ready for the main event, channelling some of their giddy energy into a Mexican wave as the countdown begins.

Last night, St Lucia's Julien Alfred seized her moment. Whose turn will it be tonight?

Image source, Getty Images

Noah Lyles is the reigning world champion.

Last year, he became the first man since Usain Bolt in 2015 to win 100m & 200m world titles.

The 27-year-old showman was among the favourites coming into these Olympic Games, but he was slow in the heats and he was second behind Oblique Seville in the semis.

Is Lyles saving his best for last?

Image source, Getty Images

South African Akani Simbine won semi-final two with a blistering time of 9.87.

He was fourth three years ago in Tokyo.

The 30-year-old, who is the former African record holder, was a flag bearer for South Africa at the opening ceremony.

Allison Curbishley
Former GB 400m runner on BBC Radio 5 Live

We do not have a Usain Bolt style favourite in this one. There is an argument for about four or five of the field not just to medal but to win. That is exactly what you want.

I think the race is going to be won out of the blocks. It will be who reacts quickest to the start. I think if Oblique Seville is as calm as he was in the semi-finals then he could be the danger man.

Image source, Getty Images

Letsile Tebogo is through the 100m final after running a 9.91 in semi-final number two.

The 21-year-old of Botswana won silver at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.

He is the current 300m world record holder running a time of 30.69 seconds in February. Usain Bolt's best ever time in that event was a 30.97.

Image source, Getty Images

Oblique Seville has just stormed into the 100m final, winning his semi-final with a personal best of 9.81.

That run is the fourth fastest time by any sprinter in 2024.

The 23-year-old Jamaican has finished fourth at the last two World Athletics Championships.

Image source, Getty Images

Jamaica's Kishane Thompson is the fastest man this year. In June he ran a blistering 9.77 at the Jamaican Olympic trials.

He almost matched that pace in his semi-final, running a 9.80 - the fastest time so far at Paris 2024.

This is the 23-year-old's first appearance at an Olympics.

Dame Denise Lewis
Sydney 2000 Olympic heptathlon gold medallist on BBC TV

It has been disappointing that [current 100m champion] Marcell Jacobs hasn't been able to build and capitalise on the title that he shocked the world with last time around [in Tokyo].

Anything is possible, people sometimes make mistakes. Times matter because it gives us some context but it doesn't tell the full picture because you have to deliver.

The time for talking has stopped now, it is about performance.

Poland's Pawel Fajdek threw 82.52m to claim gold at Tokyo 2020 but he won't be taking a medal away from Paris with his best attempt of 78.80m meaning he will finish no higher than fifth.

Image source, Getty Images

Marcell Jacobs claimed a surprise gold in the men's 100m in Tokyo.

The Italian, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, streaked clear to win in 9.80 seconds, leaving the then world champion Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell, the world's fastest in 2021, far behind.

Few would have picked Jacobs, who was born in Texas to an American father but moved to his mother's Italian homeland before his first birthday, as Jamaican great Usain Bolt's successor for Olympic gold.

Jacobs missed out on the final of the 2023 World Championships, but he defended his European title in June.

Can he retain his Olympic title?

Allison Curbishley
Former GB 400m runner on BBC Radio 5 Live

In this post Usain Bolt era the men's 100m is really, really exciting to watch. We don't know who is going to step up and win.

Noah Lyles put in his slowest time all season in the heats. He would not have planned that but he is not panicking. He is still giving off the aura of 'I have this.' But you could put an argument in place for four or five guys to win it.

Here's how they will line up this evening, along with the times they ran in the semi-finals...

1. Kenneth Bednarek (9.93 secs)
2. Fred Kerley (9.84 secs)
3. Kishane Thompson (9.80 secs)
4. Akani Simbine (9.87 secs)
5. Oblique Seville (9.81 secs)
6. Noah Lyles (9.83 secs)
7. Letsile Tebogo (9.91 secs)
8. Marcell Jacobs (9.92 secs)

Image source, Getty Images

This is what the podium for the men's 100m looked like three years ago in Tokyo.

Minus the masks, all three - Marcell Jacobs, Fred Kerley and Andre de Grasse - made the semi-finals.

But only Jacobs and Kerley will compete in the final.

Image source, Getty Images

• 1980: Allan Wells (GB)
• 1984: Carl Lewis (USA)
• 1988: Carl Lewis (USA)
• 1992: Linford Christie (GB)
• 1996: Donovan Bailey (Can)
• 2000: Maurice Greene (USA)
• 2004: Justin Gatlin (USA)
• 2008: Usain Bolt (Jam)
• 2012: Usain Bolt (Jam)
• 2016: Usain Bolt (Jam)
• 2020: Marcell Jacobs (Ita)

Ethan Katzberg's opening throw of 84.12m is starting to look like it will be enough to take gold with one round left.

It's tough to see anyone beating that distance.

Bence Halasz of Hungary is second with a throw of 79.97m and Myhaylo Kokhan is in the bronze medal position.