Noah Lyles’s return to the men’s 200m was well worth the wait. On Friday at the Monaco Diamond League, the 28-year-old American edged out Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo in his first 200m race in 338 days.
Botswana’s Tebogo got a jump on his competition out of the blocks, and by the time two of the world’s fastest men hit the home straight, they were stride for stride. Lyles pulled ahead in the final metres to avenge his loss to Tebogo on the sport’s biggest stage nearly a year ago.
Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 runs 19.88s (-0.8) in his season opener to win the men’s 200m at the Monaco Diamond League!
2. Letsile Tebogo 🇧🇼 19.97
3. Makanakaishe Charamba 🇿🇼19.99pic.twitter.com/cTm0jNjp9k— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) July 11, 2025
Lyles clocked 19.88 seconds into a -0.8 m/s headwind, while Tebogo eased up to finish second in 19.97 seconds. Zimbabwe’s Makanakaishe Charamba rounded out the podium, dipping under 20 seconds in 19.99.
Aside from a 400m rust-buster and a 4x100m relay leg in April, this marked Lyles’s first 200m of the 2025 outdoor season. He intended to use Monaco as a tune-up ahead of next week’s London Diamond League and U.S. Olympic Trials later this month.
After the race, Tebogo shared his disappointment with reporters, saying he had to rush his warm-up due to officials reportedly calling athletes into the call room earlier than expected. “It’s not an excuse,” said Tebogo. “All of us had to deal with the same circumstances […] I now have an idea of what I need to work on before my next race.”
Photo: Kevin Morris
Lyles is set to return to action in the men’s 100m at the London Diamond League on July 19.
Marco Arop runs season’s best for fifth in loaded 800m
Edmonton’s Marco Arop had a tall order for his first Diamond League meet of the season in Monaco, taking on seven of the eight athletes from the Paris 2024 men’s 800m final. Arop posted a season’s best time of 1:42.73 to finish fifth behind Olympic champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who took the win in a meeting record and world-leading time of 1:41.44.
Although Arop’s time might look close to Wanyonyi’s on paper, Arop made a major tactical error in the first 200m of the race, thinking it would be a slow start. Arop was two seconds behind the leaders at the bell, with Wanyonyi coming through 400m in close to 49.21, and the Canadian in 51.16.
Breakout American star and 2025 world indoor champion Josh Hoey finished second to Wanyonyi in 1:42.01. Olympic 800m bronze medallist Djamel Sedjati of Algeria rounded out the podium for third, in 1:42.20.
For full results from the Monaco Diamond League, see here.
