Kishane Thompson’s 2025 season had already turned heads when he cruised to 9.88s at the Racers Grand Prix in Kingston, a run that hinted he was building toward something big. A few weeks later, under the bright lights of the Jamaican National Championships, he delivered. The Jamaican exploded out of the blocks and clocked a time of 9.75s (+0.8 m/s). The crowd roared as the time flashed on the clock, a world lead, a stadium record, and the sixth-fastest 100m ever – the fastest legal time any athlete has clocked in the past 10 years.

Now the Olympian is heading to the Silesia Diamond League in Chorzów, Poland, for a 100m win against the biggest names in the discipline. Sprinters like Olympic Gold medalist Noah Lyles, the guy who has lost only one 100m race this season, Akani Simbine, the athlete who’s sitting behind Kishane on the 100m world lead, and Kenny Bednarek and others will test him every step of the way. While he must be saving his best for Worlds in September, a track and field coach has some words for the Olympian.

“…overall, Kishane Thompson still is who we thought he was. He is a favorite in the 100-meter dash. He’s, you know, he’s showing up in the field and dominating, but he’s not bulletproof,” explained Coach Rob in his recent YouTube video. True that. The Olympic silver medalist is the fastest man of the 2025 season, but he has still not faced the bullets with the likes of those showing up in Silesia. When he did face Simbine in the Shaoxing DL, he lost. This was his season debut and remains his only loss of the season – all disciplines combined, let that sink in. And the Coach is not convinced of Thompson for the win.

Just in his August 12 video, Coach Rob stated how Thompson might not push past the limits until and unless the world title is on the line. “He’s already given us a warning shot. 9.75 like that’s happened. I don’t expect to see that clock again until we get to the World Championship. Likely in the final, not in the semis.” And he is not wrong. Like they say, save the best for the last, so finals it is. Though Rob did speculate that he might clock 9.8 or lower in a highly competitive Semis.

Now, the track and field coach talked of another untreated track and field athlete: Abdul Rasheed Saminu. “He was at the Olympics in the 100-meter semi-final, but almost nobody really noticed. He showed up to this race wearing his Ghana uniform to let us all know who he is.” In Paris, Saminu advanced through the heats to reach the semi-finals, clocking 10.06s in the heats (3rd, qualified) and 10.05s in the semis (7th), but did not advance to the final.

Rob mentioned how Abdul Rasheed Saminu is a talented but often overlooked sprinter. He’s run world-class times like 9.84 (Last Chance Qualifier in July).

He further added, “So far, what I’ve noticed is that when I look at the field of men who are likely going to be there in the final or, you know, going to threaten to make the final at the Worlds, Kishane Thompson is beating them, but he’s beating them…” but he does not believe that it is coming from a big lead. He continued, “… by about a tenth of a second. About that, maybe a little bit less. normally by 500 or more, but normally not by much more than a tenth.”

Rob then confessed that nobody has managed to get close to him as of now. But you never know, Noah Lyles is coming, and the one thing he loves to do is go against the odds.

Kishane Thompson sends a message ahead of Noah Lyles’ clash

Lined up the track in Budapest, the place where his Olympic rival once made history, Thompson broke the 10.00 barrier once again, while Noah Lyles is yet to run a sub-10. As the gunshot crackled through the silence, Kishane didn’t exactly shoot out like a bullet from his block in lane 5. The commentator noticed, “There was a bit of a twitch in the blocks there from Kishane Thompson, but he seems to have got away from it.” Sure, he did have a scuffle, but he did accelerate enough to win the race.

The Jamaican clocked a time of 9.95 seconds, and Abdul Rasheed Saminu was second with a time of 10.01 seconds. Yes, nobody else crossed the 10-second mark except for Thompson. This was his sixth sub-10 of the season. Now, let’s talk about Noah Lyles.

He has only raced two 100m races this season. At the London Diamond League, he finished second with a time of 10.00 seconds, behind Jamaica’s Oblique Seville, who clocked 9.86 seconds. Then at the USA Track & Field Championships, he advanced through the 100m heats with a time of 10.05 seconds, but withdrew from the semifinals to focus on the 200m.

But then again, can we ever count Noah out?

Recently, in an interview, the Jamaican had shared, “I’m a very competitive person. I might not show it, but when it comes to competing with a phenomenal person, I think he’s a phenomenal athlete, great rival. So, yeah, of course, when he’s ready to step back on the track and we meet, it’s going to be fireworks for sure.”

Well, fans are favoring Kishane, but how big a fireworks display are you expecting?