Noah Lyles Stars As Top Pick for Team USA’s 4X100m Relay at Upcoming World Athletics Event

At the 2023 World Athletics Championships, Noah Lyles was the anchor of the 4x100m relay team that won the gold. Now he leads the 2024 men’s roster for the same race. USATF recently announced the full team for the upcoming World Athletics Relays, which are scheduled from May 4-5 in the Bahamas. Noah Lyles sits at the top of this list.

The Bahama Relays are of paramount importance since this will serve as the qualifying event for the Paris Olympics 2024. The top 14 teams who will soar at the World Athletics Relays Bahamas 2024 will be automatically qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The list also features Olympic silver medalist Kenny Bednarek whom Lyles just defeated at the Tom Jones Invitational.

Apart from that, reigning mixed 4×400 world champions Alexis Holmes, Matthew Boling, and Ryan Willie are joined in the longer relay pool by Olympic and world 4×400 gold medalists Bryce Deadmon and Chris Bailey, who earned gold in the heats of the men’s 4×400 at Budapest. Noah’s inclusion in the relay team seems to take him closer to the lofty target he has set for himself in Paris.

That goal is a sprint quadruple in 100m, 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m. And that is not very unrealistic either. He has already completed the sprint triple in Budapest WAC, the first one to do that since Usain Bolt (2015). Therefore, with confidence, he stated in an interview by USA Today, “That’s right. I want to do all that.. I just feel like every time I step up to a new challenge, my body responds to it.” With that aim, he also took part in the 4x400m relay at the World Indoor Championships in Glasgow recently. But all was not good about it.

4x400m relay: How serious is Noah about it?

Noah Lyles had led his Team USA in the 4x100m dash at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, crossing the finish line in 37.38 seconds, and claiming gold. However, the same glory could not be carried forward in the World Indoor Championship that kicked off on 1st March 2024.

Noah Lyles and his team appeared in the 4x100m relay on the final 3rd day in Glasgow in the same championship and lost the gold to a silver with a 3:02:60 mark. That drew a lot of flak and some even went on saying that it was Lyles’ inexperience that cost the USA the gold since 400m is not considered his stronghold. But Noah is not the one to let these go unanswered.

In a tacit reminder of his quadruped goal, he lately told the Reuters, “I’m serious… I just ran the 4x400m in Glasgow (Indoor world championships), and I felt that was definitely one of my ways of saying that this isn’t a joke. A lot of people thought I was just doing it for headlines. But, no. I’m full force going in.” The statement needs no further substantiation in words. That part is best left to be taken care of on the tracks!