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Lyles advances but loses 200m record at US trials

AFP

World champion Noah Lyles cruised into the 200m semi-finals at the US Olympic track and field trials in Eugene on Friday but was upstaged by 17-year-old prodigy Erriyon Knighton during opening heats.

Lyles, who saw his hopes of a Olympic sprint double brought to an abrupt halt on Sunday when he finished seventh in the 100m final, looked much more comfortable back in his specialist event at Hayward Field.

But the 2019 World Championship gold medallist was forced to settle for second place in 20.19sec behind teenager Knighton, who raced over the line in 20.04sec.

Knighton’s winning time broke Lyles’ US high school record of 20.09sec, set at the US Olympic trials in Eugene five years ago.

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Fred Kerley, who finished third in the 100m final on Sunday, finished strongly to qualify third in 20.41sec.

Lyles said he had set out to qualify with a minimum of effort after exerting himself in the 100m earlier in the trials.

“Top two — there’s no reason for me to gas out,” said Lyles, admitting he felt much more comfortable in the 200m than the 100m.

“It always feels natural when I come back to it,” Lyles said. “I don’t have to stress too hard, I don’t have to think too much. I don’t have to worry about getting a good start or not. It’s a comfortable feeling.”

Lyles, meanwhile, was impressed by youngster Knighton after sharing a track with the teenager for the first time.

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“I love to see it — it reminds me of when I was racing here in 2016,” Lyles said. “It’s really exciting. It warms my heart.”

Knighton, meanwhile, said he had benefited from having Lyles outside him.

“I just wanted to qualify,” Knighton said. “But I had the world champion behind me so I couldn’t let off the gas too much.”

In other early heat action on Friday, world 110m hurdles champion Grant Holloway looked in superb form as he blasted to victory in 13.11sec, finishing well clear of his nearest rivals.

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FBI Most Wanted Fugitive Arrested in Mexico and Deported to U.S.

Authorities in Mexico announced Thursday that Samuel Ramírez Jr., a U.S. citizen accused of murdering two women and listed among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, was arrested in the northern state of Sinaloa.

Ramírez Jr., 33, was detained Tuesday in Culiacán just 1 hour and 13 minutes after being added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ten Most Wanted list, the agency said in a statement.

The suspect, who was born in California, has already been deported to the U.S. state of Washington, where he faces charges related to the fatal shooting of two women at a bar in Federal Way in May 2023.

A court issued an arrest warrant for Ramírez in November last year, and the FBI initially offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to his capture, later increasing the amount to up to $1 million.

“To protect individuals’ privacy and ensure continued cooperation from the public, the FBI does not confirm the identity of those who provide information,” the agency said in its statement.

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UN experts warn Nicaragua runs vast transnational network to monitor exiled dissidents

Nicaragua maintains an “extensive” transnational network to monitor and intimidate opposition figures living in exile, affecting “hundreds of thousands” of people, the United Nations Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua warned on Tuesday.

In a statement, the experts said their report “details an extensive transnational architecture of surveillance and intelligence used to monitor, intimidate and attack the hundreds of thousands of Nicaraguans living abroad.”

The report, which will be presented on March 16 to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, states that the structure maintained by the government of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo includes the army, the police, migration authorities and diplomatic missions.

According to the statement, “the government has arbitrarily stripped 452 Nicaraguans of their nationality, left thousands more exiled in a situation of de facto statelessness, and prevented many from returning to Nicaragua.”

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Trump: ‘We Think It’s True’ Amid Claims Iran’s Supreme Leader Was Killed

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he believes multiple reports claiming the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S. and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic are likely true, though he stopped short of confirming the news.

“We have a feeling that the information is correct,” he said, according to NBC News. “I don’t want to say anything definitive until I see it, but we think that’s the case. And many of their leaders have disappeared,” he added.

Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there were “many indications” that Khamenei had died in an attack on his residential compound.