"I would expect nothing less from him" - Noah Lyles predicts tough fight from Fred Kerley heading into 2024 Paris Olympics

Noah Lyles won three gold medals at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest. This included two individual golds in the 100m and 200m and a team gold in the men's 4x100m.

While Lyles earned the glorious victory in the 100m, the defending champion Fred Kerley did not even make it to the finals. He finished third in the semi-final with a time of 10.02 seconds, which wasn't enough to qualify for the final. Kerley also won gold in the men's 4x100m relay.

In a recent interview with CITIUS Mag, Lyles spoke about Kerley's ability to bounce back.

"I think it has to be Fred coming out for revenge," Lyles said. "I would expect nothing less from him. To be honest like if that was me I would be saying the exact same thing - a fire igniting under the belly."

"I think you know as Fred looks at this you know he tried the double and that's again it's hard to do the duality of mixing the two," he continued. "So whatever he's learned he's probably gonna take into the next world chance with a huge fire and saying you know 'I'm going to you know make sure that they know that I'm the one,' especially with him having that silver so definitely you know again having that burning desire."

Kerley and Lyles had turned up the heat ahead of the race in Budapest with a bit of light-hearted banter.

"I don't even want to go on break no more" - Noah Lyles looks forward to the Paris Olympics

Noah Lyles celebrates after winning the men's 4x100m relay final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest

While Noah Lyles did remarkable things in Budapest, he is still hungry for more success. The 26-year-old sprinter has now set his sights on the 2024 Paris Olympics.

In the same interview, Lyles revealed that being the top dog gets him excited and motivates him to train harder.

"I get off on knowing people are coming," he said. "Like that only gets me more excited and now that I'm really starting to figure out this starting acceleration ohh...let's get back to practice. Man I don't even want to go on break no more."

Noah Lyles won a bronze medal in the 200m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics while Fred Kerley won a silver medal in the 100m.