After claiming his fourth consecutive 200m world championship title, Noah Lyles has put a fifth title on his crosshairs. “I can’t wait for 2027 to become the only man to win five 200m titles,” he stated. For ten years, Usain Bolt was the only man to have claimed four back-to-back 200m golds in world championships (2009 – 2015). And, there’s an interesting reason why Lyles did what no athlete could do for about a decade. 

During the latest episode of the Ready Set Go podcast on September 24, Justin Gaitlin and Rodney Green weighed in on Lyles’ latest achievement. Green confessed that he had Lyles for the win from the very beginning. He claimed, “I said he was more poised for the 200m than the 100m this year. I was looking at his 200s. I was like, ‘Yeah, he’s going to be a heartbeat, man.’” And the 28-year-old athlete managed to secure a win in the most impressive fashion possible. 

According to Green, it was all because of the experience that Noah Lyles has garnered. He said, “Noah is no, no, no, no visitor to championship running… If we know he going to be ready, he going to be ready at the championships if he’s not going to show up.” And that was likely the reason that helped Lyles match Usain Bolt’s record. But Gaitlin had a different analysis. 

He admitted the way Lyles takes his strides also helped. Gaitlin pointed out that Lyles has longer and stronger stride patterns. Unlike Kenny Bednarek, he opens up and “generates power from his arm swing all the way back down to the track and his foot stride back down to the track.” This particular form gives him the velocity needed to propel forward and create a gap from his opponents. Gaitlin remarked, “That’s one of his secret weapons that he has.” 

On top of that, Rodney Green revealed one more thing that helped Noah Lyles claim his fourth consecutive 200m world championship title. And that was the performance during the lock up. He asked the audience to pull up the video and take a look at the 150m mark. That was when Bednarek, Letsile Tebogo, and Lyles were locked up. But it was only Lyles to managed to push through. Green commented, “If you’re not mentally tuned into your brain, the whole form, no matter what type shape you’re in, to really lock in and world through your form and step forward, and which Noah did, that lock up, you’re not beating that lock up.” 

However, according to Lyles, it’s a whole other story. 

Noah Lyles reveals reasons behind big win at the 2025 Tokyo World Championships

Lyles has always said that the secret is often out there in the open. People know it all. But they don’t usually act upon it. Well, for Lyles, he took the chance to study his opponents and came up with a winning strategy. Following his win, he said, “I studied my competitors. I knew their momentum was going to slow up once we got closer to 150m but mine was going to build up after I hit that mark.” 

He claimed that being patient was the most important aspect of winning the 200m race. The champion stated, “I controlled the race. I knew some of the guys were going to tighten up but I just stayed relaxed and got the job done.” In the end, Lyles got to see his face on the big billboards of Tokyo. After all, he achieved something that people only dreamed of in the past decade. 

After crossing the finish line, Lyles raised his arms high into the sky, holding the pose before releasing a bellowing roar as he flexed downwards. He ran the race in 19.52 seconds. And that’s an achievement in itself. Now, we can say with certainty that Noah Lyles can go on to break a few more records before he’s 30.