(Reuters) – American Noah Lyles won the 200-meter indoor at the New Balance Grand Prix on Saturday in New York City on Staten Island but the Olympic favorite said he was not satisfied with the his performance.
The out-of-world champion, who ran the event 60m earlier in the day, did not pull late into a race of three that was closer than many expected but won with a time of 20.80 seconds.
“It’s been awesome since I ran 200 inside,” said Lyles, who personally came up with the indoor distance in March 2016 when he hit 20.63. “In fact, it wasn’t the time.”
Deon Lendore of Trinidad was second in 20.92 and American Jaron Flournoy was third in 21.26. American Courtney Lindsey ran the fastest 200m indoor this year last month in Lubbock, Texas, with a time of 20.45.
Lyles, who preferred to sweep the 100m, 200m and 4x100m Olympics in Tokyo later this year, looked a bit baffled after crossing the finish line and after that he said he needs to work at his pace.
“My coach and I will go back and see where we need to improve,” said Lyles. “I’m very strong right now but my pace isn’t that fast.”
“Moving on, it’s a good thing I’m strong because I can come out here and run two races but in the future we’ll just build speed with that. ”
Reporting with Frank Pingue in Toronto; Edited by Toby Davis