The China Mail - Don't pile Olympic pressure on Lyles, says US legend Lewis

Lyles added another gold to his trophy cabinet by anchoring the US team to victory in the men's 4x100m on Sunday at the World Athletics relays in Nassau, where American quartets won four of five events raced as Olympic qualifiers.

The 26-year-old ensured he would be going to Paris with a target on his back after winning golds in the 100, 200 and 4x100m relay at last year's world championships in Budapest.

He followed up with two silvers at the world indoors in Glasgow in February, firstly beaten by teammate Christian Coleman in the 60m and then as a controversial last-minute member of the 4x400m relay team.

That call-up received wide criticism, with allegations of favouritism levelled at Lyles, even from teammate Fred Kerley.

But Lewis, one of the most decorated Olympian athletes with nine Summer Games golds, said that should now be treated as water under the bridge.

"I hope that he ignores it and moves on. All Noah's doing is what you're asking. He's a good kid, he's going to do very well," Lewis told a small group of journalists in Nassau.

"I don't have a problem with someone saying 'I want to win another gold medal for America'.

"I don't want him to get bogged down by silliness. It really is silly.

"It's not fair. He doesn't deserve it, let him do his thing."

Among Lewis' nine Olympic medals was a tally of four at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles when he won both sprints, was a member of the winning 4x100m relay team and also claimed victory in the long jump.

Thoughts of Lyles having a tilt at emulating a four-gold haul in Paris left Lewis musing.

"Trust me, it's hard enough to win three, period!" he said.

"It's really, really hard to do it. Let him focus on that. And if the relay pans out, that could be wonderful for the sport."

- Open field in the 100m -

But Lewis warned that recent changing faces in the 100m champion's chair meant there would be no shoo-in for victory in the blue riband event.

"Anyone can win it!" said the American who won a second 100m Olympic gold in Seoul in 1988 after Ben Johnson tested positive for doping, as well as three world titles (1983, 1987 -- again promoted due to Johnson's doping -- 1991).

While Lyles won in Budapest last year, Kerley won at the Eugene worlds the year before, Italy's Marcell Jacobs having claimed the Olympic title and Coleman the 2019 world championships in Doha.

There was no sight of Coleman or Kerley in Nassau, but Jacobs joined Lyles in action at the Thomas A.Robinson Stadium in the capital of the Bahamas.

"You want to be on the team for the Olympics, you should be here," the outspoken Lewis said.

As for Lyles, the 62-year-old said: "Well, he's here and he should be. I think he understands it. He's running technically the best right now. That's why he's winning and he's doing a good job.

"I think the sport needs someone to be dominant... because the public like to attach to someone.

"When they win they're happy, when they lose they're sad. They want to go with the emotion of people. Right now there's no emotion to it, it's just like, who's going to win."

Lewis, one of only six Olympic athletes who won a gold medal in the same individual event in four consecutive Olympic Games -- in his case the long jump -- also warned against weight of expectation on a single athlete raising track and field's profile in general.

"It's much bigger than him and I don't think it's fair to be it on athletes," he said of Lyles, using Jamaican sprinting legend Usain Bolt as a comparison.

"Usain did a tremendous job but he didn't grow the sport," he said. "As much as he did, as big as he was, he still didn't grow the sport, sport financially went down during his tenure."

K.Leung--ThChM