Noah Lyles defends Christian Coleman, Sha'Carri Richardson & Fred Kerley following worrying outdoor season starts

Lyles has defended his compatriots Christian Coleman, Fred Kerley and Sha'Carri Richardson following their shaky outdoor season starts.

American sprint sensation Noah Lyles has jumped to the defence of Christian Coleman and Fred Kerley following their rather worrying starts to their Diamond League seasons back in April.

Both Americans have flattered to deceive since the start of the season. Coleman and Kerley have failed to run sub-ten second races so far, and it got worse for the latter, who suffered an injury that could curtail his Olympic preparations.

Even the ever-impressive Sha’Carri Richardson was unable to win any of the 200m events she ran in China, leaving fans worried.

Lyles has been in impeccable form on his own. He helped the US 4x100m relay team clinch gold in Bahamas and also set an American record in the 150 meters of the LA Grand Prix meet last week.

However, even he is yet to peak, and several other sprinters as well are at that stage, including South Africa’s Akani Simbine and Kenya’s Ferdinand Omanyala.

Speaking to the media following his LA Grand Prix feat, Lyles vehemently defended his compatriots, asking for people to be more considerate considering the unusual scheduling of events in an Olympic year.

“These last few Diamond Leagues were brought from the middle of the season to earlier than Doha. Doha is usually the start of the season every time, these were scheduled for April,” Lyles said.

“You usually do not see people running in April unless they are running Texas relays, something like that and they have a lot of wind (challenging them)."

Coleman, who clinched gold in the 60 meters of the World Indoor Championships, looks like he is still getting out of the shell from the indoor season, something Lyles thinks is the case.

“You are just dusting off from the indoor season or dusting off from being on a long hiatus of a long (previous) season.

“The fact he was more of a glorified rust buster, people are like ‘Oh! This was at Diamond League!’”

Lyles believes the long-hour flights to China in April may have taken a toll on his compatriots mentally and physically.

“That does not change the fact that it is still in April. You do not usually see huge times then. And they travelled all the way to China. Come on! That is a 14-hour flight. That is like a 12-hour difference.

“You cannot expect somebody to record crazy times just because they went over to a Diamond League meet.”

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