Lyles' Comeback Win
Olympic Champion Noah Lyles Dominates Rome 100m; Alfred, Pathirage Also Win Big
Noah Lyles won the men’s 100 meters at the Rome Diamond League on Thursday in 9.88 seconds, holding off Emmanuel Eseme (9.94, national record) and Letsile Tebogo (9.95) despite a slower start. The U.S. Olympic champion erased any early deficit, then surged late, with Lyles saying he believed the race was effectively decided about 10 meters from the finish as he planned his celebration. Marcell Jacobs, among the field’s biggest names, finished fifth in 9.99. In the women’s 200 meters, Julien Alfred defeated world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to win in 21.93, with Jefferson-Wooden clocking 22.17 in her first 200m race of 2026. The meet also featured a standout javelin performance from Sri Lanka’s Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage, who hit 92.62 meters for a winning throw and a major career milestone.
Key Points
Organizers put the men’s 100m under “championship final” treatment at the Stadio Olimpico—saving it for the final event of the night and switching on the main stadium lights when the athletes were introduced one by one.
Reuters noted Lyles was coming off a win just two weeks earlier, having opened his season with a 9.95sec victory in Tokyo—before again starting from a slow block position but powering through to 9.88sec.
In the javelin, Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage said he tried to chase the national record and improved it “by 30cm, even though I had only two valid attempts today,” adding: “Winning today feels like a Sri Lankan festival.”
For the women’s 200m, Reuters quoted Julien Alfred saying, “I wanted to go a bit faster but I will take the win,” and explained she felt “a lot stronger now than I used to be,” which allowed her to push more in the second part of the race.
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