Noah Lyles delivered on his big talk with a big performance on the Olympics’ biggest night.

Lyles scampered to the blue-riband 100m final in a race for the ages - officials taking nearly a minute to study a seven-way photo finish, as all eight finalists ran sub ten seconds for the first time in history.

Outspoken but not outpaced, Lyles is just the sort of swaggering showman track and field has so desperately needed since the retirement of Usain Bolt seven years ago.

But his winning time of 9.79 seconds was just five thousandths of a second quicker than Jamaica's Kishane Thompson - and that's not even the thickness of a vest.

When Bolt retired in 2017, the yawning gap he left in his sport was obvious, Lyles has the talent and personality needed to fill it, especially with a home Games looming in Los Angeles.

Sprinters put bums on seats and Lyles is more than worth the price of the ticket.

"It's the one I wanted," he said.

"It's the hard battle, it's the amazing opponents. Everybody is healthy, everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove I'm the man amongst all of them. I'm the wolf amongst wolves.

"I will be honest, I went up to Kishane and said 'I will be honest bro I think you had that one.' I was fully prepared to see his name pop up, and to see my name pop up I'm like 'goodness gracious, I'm incredible'."

This 100m was a production and Lyles was the star act in an all-star cast. The Stade de France was lit up by 80,000 illuminated bracelets while the house DJ cranked up the tunes.

Lyles was in his element, introduced to the crowd, he bounced 50 metres down the track in a bid to fire them up, not that they needed it. It looked exhausting and he hadn't even started.

The American had looked rusty through the rounds, failing to win either his heat or semi-final but delivered when it mattered.

Lyles joins a line of Olympic champions stretching back to fellow American Thomas Burke in 1896, who later became a leading sports journalist.

What he'd have to write about this pumping evening in Saint-Denis you can only guess as Lyles joins a list of storied champions that include Bolt, Carl Lewis and Jesse Owens.

A century after Harold Abrahams won the Olympic sprint title here and inspired Chariots of Fire, Lyles wrote his own script in the most Hollywood way possible.

Never knowingly unsold, you know you are dealing with someone special when they talk about themselves in the third person.

"One hundred per cent, that's my better event," he added. "I'm ready to take it to the 200m.

"I hope you guys like Noah because I've got plenty more coming."

Great Britain didn't have a represent in the final for the first time since 2016, Louie Hinchcliffe's 9.97 second semi-final time not enough to progress.

Five years Lyle's junior, this has been a breakthrough year for the Sheffield sprinter, winning the prestigious NCAA title in the USA and running under ten seconds four times.

"It’s not the result that I wanted but I can’t be too hard on myself,” he said.

"I will definitely use this experience and learn from my mistakes. I have to take the positives.

"It’s back to the drawing board, we’ll work on it and hopefully come back stronger next year."

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