Sawt Falasteen - Tebogo denies Lyles Olympic sprint double, LeBron's US dream team take to court

A huge night of athletics on the lilac track of the Stade de France also featured a mouthwatering clash between the two fastest women in history over the 400m hurdles.

Fresh from winning the closest 100m final in modern Olympic history, the brash Lyles was keen to showcase his speed and endurance in his preferred 200m.

But Tebogo stunned the fancied Americans with a storming run down the straight, relegating Lyles to bronze and his US teammate Kenneth Bednarek to silver.

The first African to win 200m gold, Tebogo clocked a continent-wide record time of 19.46sec, leaving a distraught Lyles prone on the track before being taken away in a wheelchair.

"It was really a beautiful race for me," Tebogo said.

"When we made it to the final, my coach just told me, now my job is done, it's up to you to see what you can do," he added.

In the morning session, the American men and women had both powered through their 4x100m relay heats to warn off any rivals aiming to challenge their dominance.

Stung by having to settle for 100m silver, Sha'Carri Richardson ran her anchor leg in an eye-popping 9.99sec to see the women home while the men could afford to leave out Lyles and still cruise to victory.

In what could be the race of the Games, reigning champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone from the United States and Dutchwoman Femke Bol go head-to-head in the 400m hurdles final.

Bol already has one gold after running an extraordinary anchor leg to bring the Dutch to victory in the 4x400 mixed relay.

But McLaughlin-Levrone is the world record holder and defending Olympic champion in the 400m hurdles. Bol is plotting revenge after finishing third in Tokyo.

Rounding off Thursday's packed schedule, three-time world champion Grant Holloway from the US hopes to go one better than the silver he won in the 110m hurdles three years ago.

- 'Lulled to sleep' -

As the Paris Games builds to a crescendo this weekend, LeBron James led his dream team of US superstars into a semi-final against a Serbia powered by Nikola Jokic, the NBA's three-time most valuable player.

The US have won both previous meetings by 26 points but coach Steve Kerr was taking nothing for granted, saying: "We can't get lulled to sleep because we beat them twice."

Hosts France, led by towering San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, lie in their path to gold, after edging Germany 73-69 in the first semi-final.

Earlier Thursday, 24 women dived into the River Seine, which was deemed clean enough for competition, for the 10-kilometre swim through the heart of the city.

Sharon van Rouwendaal from the Netherlands won a gruelling battle against her competitors and a strong current in 2hr 3min 34sec, devoting her gold to the memory of her pet dog, Rio, who died in May.

"Swimming is my everything, but so was he... My father said: 'swim one more time and do it for him. And that's what I did'," she added.

Water quality in the Seine has been in the spotlight during the Olympics despite a 1.4-billion-euro ($1.5-billion) effort to improve sewerage and water treatment.

Organisers have been forced to scrap several training sessions and postpone the men's individual triathlon after assessing the water to be too dirty to swim in.

- Penalty shoot-out -

On the golf course, unheralded Swiss player Morgane Metraux took the halfway lead at Le Golf National after a spectacular front-nine of 28 in a six-under-par 66, taking her to eight-under for the tournament.

In men's hockey, world number one Netherlands secured their first gold in the event since 2000, beating Germany in a penalty shoot-out.

The Dutch were hoping to make it a double as the women face China for gold on Friday.

Former hockey powerhouse India clinched bronze with a nail-biting 2-1 win over Spain.

burs-ric/dj

L.AbuTayeh--SF-PST