(Reuters) -Olympic 100 metres champion Noah Lyles has cancelled his much-anticipated showdown with NFL wide receiver Tyreek Hill, due to what he said were personal reasons and lack of buy-in from sponsors.
Hill, who plays for the Miami Dolphins, had challenged Lyles to a 50-yard race days after the American won the blue-riband event in Paris last year in the closest-fought final in Olympic history.
Lyles said that plans were to hold the event this weekend in New York’s Times Square.
“We were very deep into creating the event,” Lyles told reporters at the Stagwell Global Sport Beach event in Cannes, France. “In fact, it was supposed to happen this weekend.
“Unfortunately, there were some things, complications, personal reasons that it just didn’t come to pass, but we were full on. We were going to shut down New York’s Times Square and everything, it was going to be a lot of fun.”
Hill has boasted that he could beat Lyles in a race, leading to plenty of trash talk between the two men.
When Lyles won his fourth consecutive 60m indoor title in February, he playfully tore off his race bib to reveal a scrawled message: “Tyreek Could Never”.
Hill, among the fastest players in the NFL, said on social media that the race was on, writing “Coming to a city near you”.
Lyles said many people, including potential sponsors, thought it was all just talk.
“A lot of people didn’t believe it to be true. They thought it was just, ‘Oh, this is just them talking online’,” Lyles said. “The companies didn’t believe it’s real.”
(Reporting by Lori Ewing, editing by Ed Osmond)
Comments