Sawt Falasteen - Seville outshines Olympic champion Lyles in season-opening 100m

Lyles, in lane five outside Seville and inside Botswana's Letsile Tebogo, had a terrible start and spent the whole race attempting to chase down the Jamaican.

Seville, twice a fourth-placed finisher in the blue riband event at the two last world championships, duly held his nerve, crossing the line at the London Stadium in 9.86 seconds, with Lyles fighting back to finish second in 10.00sec.

Britain's Anguilla-born Zharnel Hughes rounded out the podium in 10.02sec.

The build-up to Lyles' first 100m of the season, after he beat Tebogo in the 200m in Monaco last week, was all about the American coming back from an ankle tendon injury and finetuning his form ahead of September's world championships in Tokyo.

The 28-year-old, ever the showman, insisted Friday that his goal for the season was to win three gold medals in the Japanese capital, to repeat the triple golden medal haul he enjoyed at the 2023 world championships in Budapest.

Arms raised, eyes shut, Lyles applauded the 60,000-capacity crowd and span around on his spikes to acknowledge the rapturous welcome, which was also afforded to Tebogo.

As the sprinters settled in their blocks, the sun shone through on West Ham's stadium, a wholesale change from earlier thunder storms.

But Seville made the difference from the starter's gun and was never in danger of not winning.

Seville's Jamaican teammate Kishane Thompson, the fastest man this year over 100m with a time of 9.75sec, was present in London, but only as part of a strong Jamaican 4x100m relay team seeking to bag a qualifying time for the Tokyo worlds.

Thompson anchored the Jamaican quartet to victory in 37.80sec to ensure a berth in the Japanese capital.

"We are very grateful to get the job done," Thompson said.

"I would not say they were the best exchanges, but we got it around safely."

L.AbuAli--SF-PST