American speedster Noah Lyles has come from the clouds to claim gold in the 100 metres in Paris in one of the closest finishes in the sprint's Olympic history.
After 9.79 seconds and then an agonising 30 more waiting for the photo finish, Lyles and second-placed Kishane Thompson spoke briefly on the track.
“Bro, I think you got that one," Lyles told the Jamaican.
“But then my name popped up and I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, amazing!’”
The pair both crossed the the finish line with a time of 9.79, with Thompson clocked at the same time before the reigning world champion was declared the winner by five thousandths of a second.
American Fred Kerley came in third at 9.81.
Thompson looked a likely winner through the race, with timing confirming he had the lead from the 30-metre mark to the final steps.
“I thought I had (him) cleared,” Thompson said.
“But I wasn’t sure. It was so close.”
Lyles, in contrast, struggled through the opening stretch and sat dead last after 40 metres.
Then the American surged, up to sixth place after 50 metres, third after 60, and second after 80.
If the event was a 95-metre sprint, or even a 98-metre sprint, he may not have won. Not that he doubted it.
“America, I told you I got this!” he yelled into the camera.
Lyles is the first American sprinter to win an Olympic gold medal in the men’s 100m since Justin Gatlin won gold at the 2004 Athens Games.
His Paris Games time was a personal best, while in a blanket finish all eight finalists stunningly finished within 0.12 seconds of the winner.
This was the closest 1-2 finish in the 100 since at least Moscow in 1980 - or maybe even ever.
Back then, Britain’s Allan Wells narrowly beat Silvio Leonard in an era when the electronic timers didn’t go down into the thousandths of a second.
The same was true in 1932, when Eddie Tolan won the Olympics’ first-ever photo finish.
Sunday night's race was so close, the stadium scoreboard initially flashed a photo finish for the first seven athletes.
The first man to cross the finish line was actually Kerley, whose foot crossed ahead of his chest - the body part which counts.
For perspective, the blink of an eye takes, on average, a tenth of a second, which was 20 times longer than the gap between first and second.
Lyles, who won three golds at last year's world championships, sprinted away in celebration once the result was official.
The 27-year-old celebrated by ripping his race bib displaying his surname off his chest and proudly holding it up to the baying crowd.
"It's the one I wanted. It's the hard battle. It's the amazing opponents," said Lyles.
"Everybody came prepared for the fight and I wanted to prove that I'm the man among all of them. I'm the wolf among wolves."
Defending Olympic champion Italian Lamont Marcell Jacobs finished fifth in 9.85 seconds.
It was the first time eight men have broken 10 seconds in a wind-legal 100 metres race.
Lyles is targeting further Paris gold in the 200m and relay events.
