Retired Jamaica sprint superstar Usain Bolt has insisted he was never worried about rising United States track star Noah Lyles eclipsing his 200m world record at the Doha World Championships.

The 22-year-old American had a stellar season, even breaking Bolt’s meet record at the Paris Diamond League meet.  On the back of several strong performances to claim the US 200m national title, including an effortless win at the US national trials, speculation grew that Lyles would go after the world’s best mark of 19.19 set in 2009.

In the end, Lyles was triumphant and claimed the 200m title in 19.83, while more than good enough for gold, the time was slower than some expected.

“I knew he wasn’t going to get it. It’s not easy. A lot of people see it and feel like you show up and you just run fast,” Bolt told NBC Sports Olympic Talk.

“For me, throughout the season, I figured out what I needed to do. I didn’t run races because I wanted to run fast. I ran races to figure out how I needed to run the corner, my technique I needed to fix. If you followed me through my career, I didn’t run a lot throughout the season. I trained. I ran and competed, figured out what I needed to improve, then did that [repeated that process] over again. That’s what I did to perfect my race [for the championships].”

The 1996 Olympic 100m champion Donovan Bailey believes fellow Canadian Andre DeGrasse will be under tremendous pressure to perform at the IAAF World Championships of Athletics in Doha later this month, but he expects him to deliver.

Rising United States sprinting talent Noah Lyles has admitted legendary Jamaica sprinter Usain Bolt was right to question his championship mettle but hopes to silence all doubters at the upcoming IAAF World Championships.

The 22-year-old Lyles has recently featured prominently among the handful of names labeled as potentially next in line to inherit the throne vacated by the big Jamaican.

 To add fuel to the fire, Lyles recently clocked an impressive 19.50, the fourth-fastest time in the event’s history, in Lausanne, Switzerland last month.  While admitting that Lyles was unquestionably a huge talent, Bolt insisted he was waiting to see such performances replicated on the big stage.

“Yeah, I’ve seen him run, I’ve seen him compete,” Bolt told the New York Times.

“Last season he was doing a lot of good things, this season he has started off good. But as I said, it all comes down to the championship. Is he confident to come into a race after running three races and show up? For me, he has shown that he has talent, but when the championship comes, we will see what happens,” he added.

Lyles is yet to compete at a major championship and is also a threat over 100m but dropped the event from his schedule at the United States national championship to ensure full focus on the 200m.

“Sounds about right to me, sounds like my thoughts exactly,” Lyles said when shown the Bolt’s comments.

“It’s why I decided to run one event this year.”

Jamaica’s Briana Williams has ended her successful career as a junior and will now focus on making the transition to the senior ranks.

Trinidad and Tobago Olympian Khalifa St. Fort has reportedly parted ways with her coach Ato Boldon.

After two years of frustration, Elaine Thompson, the 2016 double Olympic champion, returned to the top of the world rankings this past weekend while winning the sprint double at Jamaica’s national championships in Kingston.

Elaine Thompson won the 200m dash at the two-day 2019 Nanjing World Challenge meeting in China on Tuesday in a season’s best 22.40.

Sprinter Andre Ewers created history when he became the first Florida State University (FSU) sprinter to win back-to-back sprint doubles at the ACC Championships held at Lannigan Field in Charlottesville, Virginia from May 9-11.

Even while revealing that he spending more time perfecting his 100m, 2018 European champion Zharnel Hughes said he is considering taking on the sprint double at the IAAF World Championships in Doha, Qatar at the end of September.

Jamaica’s Danielle Williams was the only Caribbean winner at the Diamond League meeting in Doha on Friday.

Following her history-making weekend when she ran a world-leading time and a personal best in separate events, Arkansas’ Janeek Brown was named the a U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association National Athlete of the Week.

It was the first time that Brown has been named National Athlete of the Week and the first time since 2015 that an Arkansas woman has earned the award during the outdoor season.

Running at the National Relay Championships at John McDonnell Field this past weekend, Brown ran a world-leading 12.57s in the 100m hurdles and then returned to clock a life-time best of 22.67s over 200m.

The 200m time is the second fastest time in the NCAA this season and the third fastest in the world.

The 100-meter hurdle/200-meter double was the second-fastest in the history of the sport trailing only Jackie Joyner-Kersee double from the 1988 outdoor season – a year she was a two-time gold medalist at the Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea.

Brown also ran a leg on the women’s 4×100-meter relay and the 100-meter shuttle hurdle relay helping her relay capture event titles in both.

This marks the first National Athlete of the Week honour for the former Wolmerian and the first time that an Arkansas woman has earned the award during the outdoor season since 2015. The Razorbacks cleaned up four years ago with three honors: Sandi Morris won two, while Alex Gochenour won the other.

Briana Williams is back in 200m at the 2019 Carifta Games which begins at the Truman Bodden Stadium in the Cayman Islands on Saturday following a change to the 200m schedule.

Bahamian speedster Steven Gardiner was confident he was going to run fast in his season opener at the Hurricane Invitational in Miami on Saturday.

The 2018 Austin Sealy Award winner, Briana Williams, is likely to be withdrawn from the 200m over a  gaffe in scheduling at the 2019 Carifta Games being hosted by the Cayman Islands from April 20-23.

When Briana Williams steps onto the track at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex at the 48^th renewal of the Carifta Games later this month, it will be the first of two dress rehearsals for the Jamaican National Championships two months later.