The 100m event is always the most prestigious competition in athletics at world-class tournaments. Early this morning (August 5), American runner Noah Lyles won the Paris Olympic gold medal in this event after defeating Jamaica's Kishane Thompson with an unprecedented gap of 0.005 seconds, equivalent to... 5 thousandths of a second.

Despite a poor start in the first 50 meters, falling behind Thompson, Lyles made a huge sprint in the last 50 meters. In the photo taken at the finish line, the leading runners, including Noah Lyles, Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley, crossed the finish line almost simultaneously, with a gap that cannot be distinguished by the naked eye.

At the finish line, it was not immediately clear who the winner was. However, after the computer took over, the winner was determined. Lyles won the gold medal by just 5 thousandths of a second (0.005 seconds) ahead of his second-place opponent. He finished in 9.784 seconds, while Thompson won the silver medal in 9.789 seconds. Fred Kerley won the bronze medal in 9.81 seconds. Notably, the gap between the 7 athletes was only about 0.09 seconds (9 hundredths of a second), showing the balance and fierceness of the 100m race.

Five thousandths of a second is also the closest gap in the 100m race in the world in the past 34 years, since the Moscow Olympics in 1980. In that year's tournament, British runner Allan Wells also beat Silvio Leonard by a very small margin, at a time when the Olympic timers could not measure to the thousandth of a second as they do now.

"I thought Thompson won. I told him, 'Hey Thompson, I think you won.' But when my name was announced, I was like, 'Oh my God, I can't believe it,'" Lyles shared.

Men's 100m champion Donovan Bailey (1996 Atlanta Olympic gold medalist) said Lyles' victory was "unbelievably close". "That's the way the 100m is. At this level, if you make the slightest mistake at any point, it's the difference between an Olympic champion and the rest of the runners," Bailey stressed.