American sprinter Noah Lyles has set his sights on dethroning Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt as the current 200m record holder, with the athlete expressing in a recent interview his intent to claim the title for himself.
Lyles, who is fresh off of his 100m win at the Paris Olympics, made the declaration while speaking with Shannon Sharpe and Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson on their podcast Night Cap. During the interview, which was released on Saturday, Lyles discussed his chances in the 400m.
Comparing his performance to that of Trinidadian athlete Jereem Richards, who has a personal best (PB) of 19.8 seconds in the 200m and 43.78s in the 400m, Lyles said he thinks he is capable of breaking the world record.
The 400m record is currently held by South African track and field athlete Wayde van Niekerk with a time of 43.03s, and according to Lyles, he has run 44s in the past.
He suggested that he should be able to surpass Richards, as he has a PR of 19.31s in the 200m. The sprinter went on to express that he would go after both the 400m and 200m world records.
When asked if he truly understood the difficulty of attaining that time, Lyles expressed that his body would not know the difference.
“My brain understands it, my body don’t know the difference [ … ] Why would my body think that’s a hard time. My body don’t know that that’s hard. If I keep telling it to get faster and faster it’s gonna try and adapt. So it’s gonna keep moving towards that time,” Lyles stated.
He added that if he is not able to claim gold at the Los Angeles Olympics, that does not make him any less of a person. In regards to competing in the upcoming World Championships and the years ahead, the athlete said that he is perfecting his ability to defend both his 100m and 200m titles.
“I wanna be prepared to run my fastest in each and every round. I wanna know the 100 like the back of my hand. I wanna know the 200 like both of my hands. I want to make sure that I am fully prepared, creating blueprints going down each year saying, hey, when we get to the Olympics when we get to L.A., we’re going to be so prepared that no matter what is thrown at us we will be ready,” Lyles said.
The 200m record has remained unbeaten since Usain Bolt set his winning time of 19.19s in 2009 at the World Championships. During an interview in July, Bolt described his 200m record as his baby and said that of his two longstanding track records, it means the most to him.
Watch Lyles’ interview below.
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