How Noah Lyles contributed to girlfriend Junelle Bromfield's Paris 2024 Olympics disaster

Noah Lyles (left) and his fiancee Junelle Bromfield (right).

How Noah Lyles contributed to girlfriend Junelle Bromfield's Paris 2024 Olympics disaster

Izuchukwu Akawor • Izuchukwu Akawor • 18:26 - 12.08.2024

Junelle Bromfield failed to make her mark at the Paris 2024 Olympics after her boyfriend Noah Lyles suffered from COVID.

Junelle Bromfield, the Jamaican athletics star and girlfriend of 100m champion Noah Lyles, failed to make her mark at the Paris 2024 Olympics after her partner's battle with COVID.

While Lyles clinched gold in the men's 100m, it was a bitter disappointment for his stunning other half, who crashed out in the 400m semi-finals.

The 26-year-old quarter-miler, who won bronze in Tokyo 2020, was tipped as a medal contender in the French capital.

But in a dramatic twist, it has now emerged that Lyles' COVID-19 diagnosis in the build-up to the Games left Bromfield exhausted and unable to perform at her best.

Jamaican one-lapper Junelle Bromfield || Image credit: Imago

'She said I was coughing through the night and she had to keep moving me to make sure I would stop,' Lyles revealed to the Irish Times. 

Junelle seemed to have turned up for the race of her life fatigued after failing to have enough rest the night before.

Noah Lyles won the 100m in Paris 2024.
Noah Lyles won the 100m in Paris 2024.

Bromfield, who hails from the same Jamaica town as sprint sensation Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, had breezed through her heat with a time of 51.36 seconds.

However, in the semi-finals, the heartbroken athlete could only manage a dismal 51.93 seconds - finishing last in her race and failing to progress to the final.

Junelle Bromfield and Noah Lyles are training partners and Paris Olympians
Junelle Bromfield and Noah Lyles are training partners and Paris Olympians

The crushing disappointment will be particularly tough for Bromfield, who had been tipped as a potential gold medalist after her heroics in Tokyo.

And with Lyles now a freshly minted Olympic champion, the pair will no doubt be left to console each other after their contrasting fortunes in the French capital.

Noah Lyles collapsed on the track after the Olympic 200m final

A real-life 'Romeo and Juliet' tale of triumph and despair on the biggest stage of all.

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