{"id":561184,"date":"2026-07-27T02:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561184\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T02:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:44:12","slug":"lyles-pulls-up-mid-race-loses-in-200-meters-at-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/561184\/","title":{"rendered":"Lyles pulls up mid-race, loses in 200 meters at U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Noah Lyles pulled up halfway through the 200-meter final at U.S. track championships Sunday, suffering a rare loss in his best race and allowing USC\u2019s Garrett Kaalund to take the title.<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s race at Icahn Stadium in New York \u2014 the site of Usain Bolt\u2019s first world record, back in 2008 \u2014 reigning world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden cruised to her second straight national title in a season-best 21.69.<\/p>\n

Lyles, the four-time world champion at the distance, was in decent shape rounding the turn, but as he pulled into the stretch, he slowed and shut it down. He made it to the finish line to congratulate Kaalund, a 22-year-old who won NCAA indoors at the distance earlier this year. Kaalund\u2019s winning time was 20.04.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt a grabbing sensation. I was like, \u2018Yeah, this is the time to stop. There\u2019s no reason to push this,\u2019\u201d said Lyles, who stays tied with Michael Johnson with five U.S. titles at 200 meters. \u201cIt was a somewhat of a cramp. I\u2019m fine. I just need to get stretched out, get some electrolytes in my system, but I\u2019ll be good.\u201d<\/p>\n

This marked only the fourth time Lyles has lost a 200 since he started dominating the distance in 2018, shortly after Usain Bolt left the sport. Two of those losses have come at the last two Olympics. Earlier in the week, Lyles won the 100 meters, the distance where he is the reigning Olympic champion.<\/p>\n

Kaalund said he came to nationals just \u201cto train myself against the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t looking for (any) medals, I just wanted to see where I was,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Joining him at the top of the medals stand was Jefferson-Wooden, whose main challenger, Gabby Thomas, has been running well but decided not to run at nationals.<\/a><\/p>\n

There are no world championships this year, though world athletics is introducing the Ultimate Championships, where a $150,000 first prize will be on the line in a race expected to feature Jefferson-Wooden, Thomas and Julien Alfred, who finished runner-up to Thomas at the Paris Games.<\/p>\n

The LA Games are two years away.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like with women\u2019s sprints today it\u2019s like that every single time we line up,\u201d Jefferson-Wooden said. \u201cI watch their races. They watch mine. These next few years are going to be interesting to see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis-Woodhall denied victory after protest of her final jump<\/p>\n

In women\u2019s long jump, Olympic and world champion Tara Davis-Woodhall appeared to have won in dramatic fashion after her last of six jumps placed her in the lead, much the same as what happened at the Olympic trials two years ago. But a review after a protest showed she had fouled. Judges upheld that call after she appealed the ruling and she ended up third. Alyssa Jones won with a jump of 6.96 meters (22 feet, 10 inches).<\/p>\n

Others winners Sunday were Nia Akins (women\u2019s 800), Cooper Lutkenhaus (men\u2019s 800), Emily Mackay (women\u2019s 5,000), Vincent Ciattei (men\u2019s 5,000), Jordan Geist (men\u2019s shot put), Vashti Cunningham (women\u2019s high jump), Chris Nilsen (men\u2019s pole vault), Valarie Sion (women\u2019s discus), Christopher Robinson (men\u2019s 400 hurdles) and Anna Cockrell (women\u2019s 400 hurdles) .<\/p>\n

Cordell Tinch closed out the meet with a lean at the finish line to take the 110-meter hurdles title over Bradley Franklin.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Noah Lyles pulled up halfway through the 200-meter final at U.S. track championships Sunday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-561184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=561184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}