Noah Lyles set to open 100m 2026 season on Sunday
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Reading Time: 2min | Sat. 16.05.26. | 11:00
The US sprinter opened his outdoor campaign in Gainesville last month with a 19.91 run over 200m and a 37.78 victory in the 4x100m
Olympic champions Noah Lyles and Rai Benjamin will be among the headline acts at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix when the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting returns to Tokyo’s National Stadium on Sunday, 17 May.
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For many of the leading athletes in action, the meeting offers an early-season opportunity to return to the venue that staged last year’s World Athletics Championships.
For others, it will be a chance to build on strong starts to 2026.
Lyles will contest his first 100m of the season, returning to the stadium where he won his first Olympic medal five years ago.
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Now a four-time world 200m champion and Olympic 100m champion, the US sprinter opened his outdoor campaign in Gainesville last month with a 19.91 run over 200m and a 37.78 victory in the 4x100m.
He will be joined by Canada’s Jerome Blake, the Olympic 4x100m champion who opened his individual season with a PB of 9.93. Blake will be looking to make amends after pulling up with a cramp at the World Athletics Relays in Gaborone earlier this month.
The home challenge includes Ryota Yamagata, the Japanese 100m record-holder with 9.95 and a member of the nation’s 2016 Olympic silver medal-winning 4x100m team, while 17-year-old Sorato Shimizu will make his first appearance of the year.
Shimizu set a world U18 best of 10.00 last year and will now test himself against one of the strongest fields of his young career.
Lyles misses the season-opening Diamond League leg set for Saturday, 16 May in Shanghai, but he is due to compete in the 100m at the upcoming meetings in Rome on 4 June and Paris on 28 June.
