Defending World Athletics 100 Metre Men’s Champion Noah Lyles has delivered quite a revealing statement about Jamaica sprinter Oblique Seville.
After winning his race in a time of 9.95 seconds to qualify to the semifinals at the ongoing World Championship in Tokyo, Japan, Lyles responded to a question regarding the poor start by Seville in the Jamaicans heat in a rather undiplomatic manner. He further captioned his win in the heat as “warm up“.
“Yeah I knew that [having a slow reaction time] was going to happen. That man was panicking in the back but he’s a gamer so hopefully he will get it back and we will have a great final” Lyles said to CNBC and Peacock.
One of Jamaica’s medal hopefuls in the sprints at the World Championships, Oblique Seville, had a terrible start but managed to close out the race strongly to finish third in a time of 9.93 seconds to progress to the semifinals.
That Warm Up pic.twitter.com/gHO9FF3JKW
— Noah Lyles, OLY (@LylesNoah) September 13, 2025
Speaking to the Jamaican Observer, Seville wasn’t too worried about his poor start in the heat saying, “It’s not every race where the start will be perfect, sometimes you’ve got to recover from it, and I’ve learned my lesson both ways…I’m not worried.”
Ghana’s Abdul-Rasheed Saminu will compete in the semifinals which takes place tonight at 20:25 GMT alongside the likes of Seville and Lyles. (Click highlighted text to read full story)
Scroll down to watch Noah Lyles’ interview
🇺🇸Noah Lyles says he knew 🇯🇲Oblique Seville would have a bad start because “that man was panicking in the back” 👀#WorldAthleticsChamps 📺: CNBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/BVRhRr6gUC
— Travis Miller (@travismillerx13) September 13, 2025
