By Lori Ewing
PARIS (Reuters) – Great British runner Linford Christie believes Noah Lyles would be better off letting his races speak for themselves, saying the American’s brash comments are fuelling rivalry between his rivals.
Confident Lyles is not shy about achieving his goal of four gold medals at the Paris Olympics, and has angered his rivals with his sarcastic comments, including British runner Zarnell Hughes.
“He (Lyles) says some things that people don’t like,” Christie said Saturday at a media event at Puma House. “You can never upset your opponent because that gives him 10 percent of the adrenaline to beat him.”
“It’s never a good idea, because people will say, ‘Well, I don’t care if I’m last as long as I’m in front of you.’”
“He pushes himself and you don’t need to push, you just need to run and relax. But, you know, the good thing about him is he’s crazy enough to do it too.”
Lyles, 27, won gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay at last year’s world championships and said he would like to be part of the U.S. 4x400m relay team in Paris to potentially win four gold medals.
Hughes, a four-time European champion who is competing in Paris, recently responded to Lyles over an insult that appeared in the Netflix series “Sprint.”
“If you don’t have the energy of the main character, track and field is not for you,” Lillis said of Hughes.
When Hughes was recently asked about his reaction, he said, “I said, ‘This guy just needs to shut up.'”
Christie, a 100m gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, said Lyles’ outspokenness could backfire.
“Andre De Grasse (Canadian current Olympic champion in the 200 metres) is quiet, he doesn’t say anything, and the rest of the guys are quiet. The Jamaicans are quiet,” Christie said.
“I think it’s going to come down to mind. Noah plays really good mind games and takes everyone out of the zone.”
Although Lyles is considered the successor to Jamaican Usain Bolt, no one has ever challenged Bolt’s 100m world record of 9.58 seconds. And Christie doesn’t think anyone will anytime soon.
“It’s a huge record, and it will stand for a long time,” said the 64-year-old. “I’m not saying that because it’s the limit of how fast people can run because I think people will run faster. But this year I don’t think so.”
Lyles, who is more powerful in the 200m, ran a career-best 9.81 seconds at the Diamond League last week, the third-fastest time in the world this year. Jamaica’s Keishan Thompson ran the fastest time in 9.77 seconds.
