Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley Headline Men’s 200m Battle at USATF NYC Grand Prix

Anthony Foster
By Anthony Foster 3 Min Read
EUGENE, OREGON - JULY 21: Noah Lyles of Team United States celebrates winning gold in the Men's 200m Final on day seven of the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 at Hayward Field on July 21, 2022 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images for World Athletics)

NEW YORK, New York. (May. 12, 2022) – World champions Noah Lyles and Fred Kerley are set to race over 200 meters at the USATF NYC Grand Prix, organizers announced today.

A gold-level stop on World Athletics’ Continental Tour Gold, the USATF NYC Grand Prix will take place at Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island in New York City on Saturday, June 24. Tickets for the event on are now on sale at http://nygp.globalathletics.com/.

Returning to the USATF NYC Grand Prix, Noah Lyles will headline the men’s 200m. Lyles has been a dominant figure over the 200m in recent years, having won the 2020 Olympic bronze medal and world championships golds in both 2019 and 2022, the latter of which he won in 19.31, breaking Michael Johnson’s American record and moving Lyles to third on the all-time list. Showing that he’s in excellent form, last week Lyles won the 150m at the adidas Atlanta City Games in 14.56, the third-fastest time ever run.

Challenging Lyles in the 200m will be Fred Kerley, the 2022 World Champion at 100m. In addition to the 100m gold he won in 2022, Kerley is also the 2019 World Championships bronze medalist at 400m and is one of only three men to run sub-10.00 for 100m, sub-20.00 for 200m and sub-44.00 for 400m. His lifetime best of 9.76 for 100m makes him the equal sixth-fastest man in history at the distance. Kerley opened his 2023 outdoor season with a win over 200m at the Maurie Plant Meet in Melbourne in a time of 20.32, and is coming off a victory over the same distance at the Doha Diamond League Meeting in 19.92.

Leading the women’s sprints will be two of America’s top sprinters, Aleia Hobbs and Gabby Thomas. Hobbs won a silver and gold medals at the 2020 Olympic and 2022 World Championships, respectively, as a member of Team USA’s 4x100m relay squads. This year, Hobbs is off to a sensational start, having won the USATF Indoor 60m title in 6.94A, breaking the American record that had stood for nearly 30 years.

Also a member of Team USA’s silver medal-winning relay team from Tokyo, Thomas is the 2020 Olympic bronze medalist at 200m and is the fourth-fastest woman in history. Thomas, who just yesterday graduated from the University of Texas with a Master of Public Health, recently smashed her lifetime best for 400m, running 49.68, making her the second-fastest woman in the world this year.

The 2023 USATF NYC Grand Prix will be shown live on NBC from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday, June 24 and is a gold-level member of the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold.

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