India, Sept. 19 -- To call Noah Lyles a showman is fast becoming a tired cliche. But such is the American's pull, such is his belief and such are his timings across 200 metres that there are few athletes going around who can rival his stardom.

On Friday, the Paris Olympics bronze medallist retained his World Championships crown with a blistering 19.52s run that made him only the second athlete after Usain Bolt to win the 200m world title on four occasions. While Bolt's titles were spread across a nine-year period (2007-2015), Lyles has won the competition each time he has competed in (2019-2025).

Lyles' reaction time off the blocks was third slowest of the night (0.167s) - he is not known to be a great starter anyway - but he ran a bril...