Fans lash out at 'unforgivable' incident that happened moments before men's 100m final at Olympic Games

An incident in the build-up to Sunday night's Olympic 100m final has been criticised by many, but an explanation appears to have emerged online.

Noah Lyles secured his first Olympic gold medal at the Stade de France after finishing 0.005 seconds ahead of Jamaica's Kishane Thompson.

It was a dramatic end to what was an eventful race. In the build-up, spectators inside the stadium watched on as dramatic music and a light show echoed around the arena.

But to the annoyance of many, including those inside the BBC studio, Lyles and his fellow sprinters were forced to wait around three minutes before being positioned on the starting blocks.

Colin Jackson, a two-time world champion hurdler who earned a silver medal at the 1988 Olympics, was baffled by the delay.

"I’m looking down at the track to see if there are any issues, any problems, because we know this race was supposed to start at least three minutes ago," he said during the BBC's pre-race coverage.

"There doesn’t seem to be anything happening. This is very frustrating for them because this is the biggest race of the year."

Denise Lewis, who won gold in the heptathlon at Sydney 2000, added: "I have to say that it’s a little bit unfair to the athletes themselves.

"You get yourself to that arousal point where you’re in the zone, you’re absolutely wanting to give everything and then that is just waning slightly, the longer you’re left out there.

"This is the finite margins we’re talking about and that for me was just way too long."

The scenes were also criticised by many viewers.

One fan wrote: "The lengthy delay before the start of the men's 100m final is unforgivable - the blue riband event, the world's fastest men, nerves already stretched, made to wait and wait for minute after agonising minute."

A second said: The wait for this 100m men’s final feels like a LIFETIME," while a third commented: "Ok. This is ridiculous how long they are making the runners wait for this 100m final."

A fourth wrote: "Sensational 100m final. A joke of a delay to the showpiece after a great intro. But they all delivered. 9.91 seconds in EIGHTH!!! And 9.79 for BOTH 1st and 2nd... thousandths of a second!! Superb watch."

A fifth added: "That delay before the 100m final was very bad. What was the need?"

It has since emerged that the delay was seemingly caused by an individual who attempted to gain access to the track.

The person in question, wearing a t-shirt that read, ‘free Palestine, free Ukraine’, was eventually led away by four members of security after being tackled to the ground.

Speaking after winning gold in Paris, race winner Noah Lyles was informed about the person who appeared to delay proceedings at the Stade de France.

"Is that what we were waiting for?" he said in his post-race press conference alongside Kishane Thompson and Fred Kerley.

"I didn’t see anybody try to get on the field. But I was wondering what we were waiting for, not gonna lie. But, in the meantime, the crowd were constantly getting more and more hyped. It didn’t feel as if it was completely dead."

https://t.co/Cy8lgFGbMM pic.twitter.com/MK78mTkuIe

— James Rhodes (@James_Athletics) August 4, 2024

At the time of writing, it has not been confirmed that the track invader sparked the delay on Sunday night but as seen above, images of the incident in question have emerged.