Louie Hinchliffe advances to the semi-finals by defeating favorite Noah Lyles

By James Toney in Paris

Sheffield’s Louie Hinchliffe showed no signs of nerves on the big stage, choosing instead to take on the big names on his Olympic debut.

Hinchliffe lowered the colours of world 100m champion and Olympic favourite Noah Lyles by recording the third fastest time of his career in the Stade de France heats this morning.

Hinchliffe is coached at the University of Houston by nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis and recorded a personal-best time of 9.95 seconds at the NCAA Championships earlier this year.

His first lap time of 9.98 seconds was just three hundredths slower but, aided by the super-fast purple track in Paris, he knows he will need to be quicker than ever this weekend.

“It was good to have him back after London, it was a good feeling,” he said after beating Lyles to the finish line.

“I wasn’t thinking too much about him, he wasn’t too close to me, so I wasn’t thinking too much about who was in the race.

“I think the pressure and the environment will make me value trying to reach the Olympic final more.

“Right now, I’m just running my races. I’m not thinking too much about results. I don’t want to chase results.

“The atmosphere is amazing. I think that environment brings out the best in all of us. You have to make the most of it and use it to your advantage.

“My coach told me to run my own race and not get distracted by all this, just focus on me.”

Lyles was the first to congratulate Hinchliffe, but insists it will not happen again.

“He’s a talented kid, he ran well in the NCAA, so I knew he would run well, he had it in him,” he said.

“I expected them to just get in line. They didn’t, they took it as a chance to have a chance against me. To be honest, I should have expected it knowing it was the Olympics. But this is my first time in the 100m Olympics, that’s on me, I won’t let that happen again.”

Lyle’s American teammates Kenneth Bednarek and Fred Kerley set the fastest times in qualifying, but Hinchliffe was third fastest overall.

Team GB’s Zharnel Hughes also progressed to the semi-finals, but Jeremiah Azu was disqualified for a false start.

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