Noah Lyles shuts down fallacious comparison between Usain Bolt & Tottenham defender’s speed

Usain Bolt and Noah Lyles

ATHLETICS Noah Lyles shuts down fallacious comparison between Usain Bolt & Tottenham defender’s speed

Joel Omotto 07:42 - 11.02.2024

American sprint king Noah Lyles has hit out at a fan who made a comparison between Jamaican legend Usain Bolt’s record-breaking speed and that of a Tottenham player

Multiple world champion Noah Lyles has refuted claims made by a fan that Tottenham Hotspur defender Micky van de Ven's speed during a recent Premier League clash is almost similar to Usain Bolt’s when he broke the 100m world record.

During the Premier League match between Tottenham and Brentford on February 1, the Dutch defender’s highest recorded speed was 23.23 miles per hour as his team won the London derby 3-2.

That led the fan to claim that Bolt's speed was 23.35 mph in 2009 when he shattered the 100m world record at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, adding that the center-back’s speed was only 0.12 mph less than the legendary sprinter's recorded speed.

Bolt ran an astonishing 9.58 at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin in what was the 12th edition of the World Championships and although his average speed was 23.35 mph, his highest recorded speed during the race was 27.8mph, which is 44.72km/h, and Lyles moved with speed to set the record straight.

“This is misleading information,” Lyles posted on X (Twitter). “Usain Bolt ran a top speed of 27-28 mph when he ran his world record.”

It shows just how highly Lyles regards Bolt who is considered the greatest sprinter of all time.

Besides the 100m, the Jamaican legend also holds the 200m world record, set at the same event, when he ran 19.19.

Lyles, a three-time world 200m champion, added the 100m title to his collection at last year’s Worlds in Budapest, Hungary, and has been seeking to break Bolt’s 15-year 200m world record.

He had hoped to do that in Budapest but failed, managing 19.52, but hopes to give it a go again at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“We’re going after everything. We’re going after the triple. Going after the world record, too. I know I can do this,” Lyles said of his 2024 plans last December.

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