Noah Lyles acknowledges skyrocketing confidence after another win in Boston

Triple World champion Noah Lyles obliterated a strong field to win the 60m race at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Boston on Sunday night.

Lyles clocked a meeting record time of 6.44 to take the win ahead of Jamaica’s Ackeem Blake who clocked 6.45 with another American, Rooney Baker, sealing the podium in 6.54.

Lyles’ serial track rival, Fred Kerley, who was making his debut over the distance, managed a fourth-place finish in 6.55.

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In a post-race interview, the two-time World Champion said: “I knew that my first 10 metres are always going to be kind of sluggish, but so long as I’m next to everybody, I don’t care.

“All I was thinking about was winning. That’s all that matters. My confidence has now skyrocketed. Let’s go get a world indoor medal!”

Meanwhile, Lyles started off in fashion when he claimed his heat in 6.54, finishing 0.05 ahead of 2018 world indoor bronze medallist Baker.

Kerley, the 2022 world 100m champion, was in a separate which he managed to win in 6.57. In the final, Kerley got off to a strong start in the final, but Blake could not let him dominate for long as he powered to take the lead.

However, as he often does in his outdoor races, Lyles timed his finish to perfection with a late-race surge to get to the finish line first in 6.44.

Not only was it a PB by 0.07 and a world-leading mark, it also shaved 0.01 off the meeting record set 25 years ago by Maurice Greene.

Last season, Lyles stunned the whole world by taking gold over 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. He has his eyes set on the World Indoor Championships where he certainly intends to winning the gold medal in the short distance.