American sprint legend salutes Oblique Seville for silencing Noah Lyles at Racers Grand Prix

American sprint legend salutes Oblique Seville for silencing Noah Lyles at Racers Grand Prix

Abigael Wafula 16:14 - 07.06.2024

A former Olympic champion has lauded Jamaican wunderkind for silencing Noah Lyles at the Racers Grand Prix but warned him to be on the lookout because Lyles will certainly be back for revenge.

American sprint icon Justin Gatlin has lauded Jamaican youngster Oblique Seville for silencing Noah Lyles at the Racers Grand Prix but also warned him to be careful in their next encounter.

Seville won the race, clocking a world leading and personal best time of 9.82 ahead of Lyles who clocked 9.85. Ferdinand Omanyala completed theh podium, clocking 10.02 to cross the finish line.

Gatlin was elated to see Seville step up and encouraged him to continue keeping the fire burning in their next encounters. The American also noted that he loves the rivalry between Jamaica and USA and is banking on Seville to keep the fire burning.

The former Olympic champion was also keen to point out that Seville has the potential to keep the rivalry and noted that he was surprised to see the Jamaican come out and shut the stadium down.

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“Oblique got the job done and I’m glad to see him step into the table. He had the opportunity last year but actually hadn’t peaked to go out there and get the job done at Worlds.

“At the Indoors, I thought that he would be the guy to get the job done…I’m glad to see that he could come out in front of his home crowd, like you said, at his meet and really put down an amazing time.

“I want to see more of it and no pressure on you brother, no pressure at all. Right now, you are carrying the banner for Team Jamaica…you are the guy who can go out there and fight these fights and keep that tradition of Team USA vs Team Jamaica going.

“You are doing a great job of it so keep doing your job, keep doing your thing, stay down, stay focused, but on the other hand, it’s going to take more than one punch,” Gatlin said.

The four-time world champion admitted that he has never trained with Lyles but he knows what the fellow American is capable of. Gatlin noted that every time Lyles loses a race, he usually unleashes a beast mode in his next events.

He warned the Jamaican rivals that Lyles will be back and he will not be playing. He exuded confidence that Lyles will definitely strike at the Olympic trials and build up the momentum to the Paris 2024 Olympics.

“I’ve not trained with Noah but history shows, when Noah takes an L, he jumps into that hyperbolic time chamber and he trains his ass off and he comes back, and he does some amazing things.

“You’ve watched him on Twitter, on interviews and he has some things to say. One thing about Noah is that he is going to use these as tools to fire him up for the next event.

“I guarantee you, now is a 9.85, next might be a 9.82 or a 9.80. It doesn’t derail Noah from preparing for what he is planning to do which is to go out there and dominate the 200m and the 100m, especially at the Olympic trials and going into the Olympics,” he said.

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