Olympic champion COLLAPSES on track after dramatic 200m final

Lyles fell short of a historic sprint double at the Olympics after finishing third in the 200 meters behind Letsile Tebogo of Botswana.

Tebogo produced a dominant last 50 metres in the race and crossed the line in 19.46 seconds beating his chest as he crossed the line.

The USA’s Kenneth Bednarek made a late surge and claimed silver forcing Lyles into third with a time of 19.70sec.

Following the event, the US Track and Field announced that the bronze medallist ran the race after testing positive for Covid.

in the aftermath of the race, Lyles appeared to struggle to catch his breath and was treated by medics.

Then the 27-year-old was seen being placed in a wheelchair and was carted away.

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Former US Olympian Michael Johnson discussed the dramatic final, as he said on the BBC: “He certainly isn’t carrying an injury because you can’t do this with an injury, you can’t run 19.70.

“If there’s anything, there’s some sort of illness that has zapped his energy from the ability to actually carry that speed all the way through.”

It now remains to be seen whether he will recover in time to run for Team USA in the 4x100m relay.

Lyles said: “I do have Covid. I tested positive around 5am on Tuesday morning. Woke up in the middle of the night feeling chills, aching, sore throat and those were a lot of the symptoms I’ve always had right before getting Covid.

“We tested it and it came back positive so we quickly quarantined in a hotel near the village and get me on as much medication as we legally could to make sure that my body was able to keep the momentum going.

“I still wanted to run, we decided it was still possible, so we just stayed away from everybody and tried to take it round by round. I knew if I wanted to come out here and win I would have to give everything I’ve had from the get go. I didn’t have any time to save energy. That was the strategy.

“It definitely affected my performance. I am more proud of myself than anything. Coming out and getting the bronze medal with Covid.

“We tried to keep it close to our chest. The medical staff, my coach and my mum knew.

“We didn’t want everybody to go into a panic. We wanted to be able to compete. We wanted to be able to make it as discreet as possible and you don’t want to tell your competitors you are sick.

“Why would you give them an edge?”

Team USA’s Kenneth Bednerak spoke to NBC News following the race and said that teammate Noah Lyles was sick.

“I think he has a little sickness going on,” Bednerak said.

“Yeah I mean that’s what I heard,” he added before saying that he did not know the specifics.

Adding insult to injury for Lyles, a yellow card appeared against his name in the official results to mark a misconduct violation for damaging his lane box.

Describing his win over Lyles and Bednerak, Tebogo, 21, said: “I’m the Olympic champion, it’s something I have never seen in my life or dreamt of – it is an amazing moment.”

“I just came here with the little that I had in me to push through because yesterday we made it to the final, my coach told me ‘now it’s your race’.

“I knew when the gun went Kenny was going to run away so make sure just to close him down, I have that top end speed that will allow me to finish the race without getting tired, so that’s what I did, and when I saw Kenny fade I knew Noah was far, far away behind us so that means I’m the Olympic champion.

“It means a lot for everybody, the country, the continent and my family.”