HOLLYWOOD PERFORMANCE FROM TEAM GB'S LOUIE HINCHLIFFE UPSTAGES NOAH LYLES WITH 'SPRINT' STAR PRAISING OPPONENT BUT INSISTING: 'I AM NOT GOING TO LET THAT HAPPEN AGAIN'

Louie Hinchliffe produced an excellent display in first round of the 100 metres
Hinchliffe's results have improved significantly and earned him praise from Lyles

Noah Lyles is working with Netflix producers on the storylines for the second series of Sprint. Saturday, though, brought a plot twist in Paris – the world champion was beaten by a student from Sheffield.

Yes, it was only the first round of the 100 metres and Lyles still made it safely through to Sunday night's semi-finals. Yet losing to Louie Hinchliffe was not what the American showman would have scripted for his first scene at the Stade de France.

For Hinchliffe, though, this was Hollywood stuff. The former Yorkshire junior golfer was ranked a lowly 11th in Britain a year ago with a personal best of only 10.17sec. But his results have transformed since moving to the University of Houston last August to be coached by nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis.

Hinchliffe, whose father is from Rotherham and mother from the Philippines, won the US collegiate title and the UK Championships earlier this summer. And now the 22-year-old has taken down Lyles in his first race at the Olympics, winning his heat in 9.98sec, the third quickest time of the morning.

If the world did not already know about the British man with the mullet, they sure do now. ‘Louie is a talented kid,’ said Lyles, who went over to congratulate Team GB’s new sprint star after finishing behind him in 10.04sec. ‘My plan was to finish first but it didn’t happen.’

This was the second time that Hinchliffe has raced Lyles in the last two weeks. In their previous head-to-head at the London Diamond League, the US superstar won in a new personal best of 9.81sec, while Hinchliffe was fourth in 9.97sec.

Hinchliffe raised eyebrows after that race – his first on the international circuit – when he admitted he was disappointed because he thought he could beat Lyles. Well, now he has – and he believes his best is still to come.

‘The pressure and the environment, trying to get to an Olympic final, will bring more out of me,’ said Hinchliffe ahead of the semi-finals at 7.05pm, with the final to follow at 8.50pm.

‘I wasn't really thinking too much about Noah. Carl Lewis just told me to run my own race and don't get distracted by it all. The track is very, very fast but the main part is the crowd. You have to use that to your advantage.’

Nobody in the athletics world loves a crowd more than Lyles. But he admitted he was caught by surprise by the runs of rivals – not least Hinchliffe.

‘I expected that they would just fall into line but they didn’t,’ said Lyles, who failed to make the US team in the 100m at the last Olympics but won a bronze in the 200m.

‘They took it as, “I’ve got one shot and they are going to take it”. I should have expected that knowing this is the Olympics. But this is my first time in the Olympic 100m.

‘Second is fine. But we will make sure from now on it is first. I am not going to let that happen again.’

Lyles, though, went on to reveal how the extra exposure he has gained from being the star of Sprint, the Netflix documentary following the world’s fastest men and women, has caused him problems in the athletes’ village.

‘Now I am the headline of Sprint and everyone knows my name, it comes with its own challenges,’ he said. ‘It’s been very hard to move throughout the village. I have to constantly go out with the hat, glasses and mask and still 20 per cent of everybody knows me.

‘My original plan was not to stay in the village, but the problem is it’s very convenient to get food, to get treatment, to get to the buses. That is the quagmire I am in.’

It is not just off the track where Lyles has challenges, however. On it, Kishane Thompson has emerged as a serious threat to Lyles’ dream of winning three gold medals, something he achieved at last year’s World Championships, with victories in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay.

Thompson won the Jamaican trials in June in 9.77sec, the fastest time in the world this year. And he looked in ominous form in Paris on Saturday, cruising through his heat in 10.00sec, having eased down halfway through.

The 23-year-old is the current bookies’ favourite to become the seventh different winner from the last seven global 100m finals. But the fastest qualifiers through yesterday’s first round were actually Americans Fred Kerley – the 2022 world champion – and Kenny Bednarek, who both clocked 9.97sec.

Britain’s fastest man Zharnel Hughes, who has struggled with injury this year, qualified third in his heat behind Kerley in 10.03sec.

‘The atmosphere is amazing,’ said the world bronze medallist. ‘I was listening to it in the warm-up area and I was just blown away because we haven’t heard this noise before. It almost sounds like football was going on in there.’

That noise is what Hughes’ fellow Brit Jeremiah Azu blamed for false starting in the first heat and being disqualified. ‘I heard something and I just reacted,’ said the Welshman, whose protest was rejected.

All the big names, though, made it through to Sunday ahead of what promises to be one of the fastest Olympic finals in history.

So, what time does Lyles think will take to win it? I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘But I’m going to run it.’

2024-08-03T20:10:55Z dg43tfdfdgfd