OSTRAVA, Czech Republic – The 2025 Golden Spike athletics meet in the eastern Czech city of Ostrava delivered two days of stunning performances on Tuesday, headlined by American sprint star Noah Lyles who etched his name into the record books by clocking the fastest 150 metres ever recorded. The 28-year-old US runner stopped the clock at 14.67 seconds, shaving 0.05 seconds off the previous world best set just four months prior by Jamaican rising star Kishane Thompson at a meet in Florida.
Lyles dominated the 150m field from start to finish, outpacing South Africa’s Sinesipho Dambile who took second place with a 14.78 second run. Teenage Australian sprinter Gout Gout rounded out the top three, posting an impressive 14.96 seconds to secure the third spot on the podium. Speaking to Czech television immediately after his record-breaking run, a jubilant Lyles doubled down on his confidence, saying: “Was there ever any doubt? Was there ever any doubt? We came for a show.”
The evening’s other headline match-up delivered equally high drama, as 400m hurdles two-time world champion Femke Broeders-Bol of the Netherlands made her first outdoor 800m appearance in her new distance event, only to be outperformed by in-form Swiss runner Audrey Werro. The 26-year-old Broeders-Bol, who claimed mixed 4x400m relay gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics after switching her focus to the 800m from her signature hurdles event, still turned in a strong time of 1 minute 57.13 seconds to take second place.
“It was so cool, I love racing in Ostrava. It was tough, but I enjoyed it,” Broeders-Bol said after the race. The Dutch star already signaled her potential in the event back in February, when she ran 1:59.07 to set a new national record in her first 800m outing since 2017, before a foot injury forced her to withdraw from the remainder of the indoor season to recover.
Werro, 22, claimed the win after breaking away from Broeders-Bol in the final 200 meters of the race, crossing the line in 1:54.45 – just half a second off her own personal best set back in March. Her time ranks as the eighth-fastest women’s 800m ever run by any athlete, though it still fell more than a second off the longest-standing world record in track and field: Jarmila Kratochvilova’s 1:53.28 set in 1983 when she competed for the former Czechoslovakia. In a special full-circle moment for the sport, Kratochvilova was in attendance at the Ostrava meet and watched the race from the stands.
“It was a really crazy run but the time is very good so I’m really happy,” Werro told reporters after the race.
In the men’s 100m, another rising South African star took the top spot: 20-year-old Bayanda Walaza matched his own personal best of 9.94 seconds to claim gold, beating Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme who finished second in 9.99 seconds. The race saw pre-meet favorites Ronnie Baker and Jordan Anthony of the United States underperform, finishing fourth and fifth respectively with times exceeding 10 seconds.