Noah Lyles makes statement before 200m final – but do mind games work?

When the biggest prizes are decided by fractions of a second, every detail counts.

And when you’ve done all you can to prepare, the ability to unsettle your rivals can provide those final, marginal advantages.

Noah Lyles, among the sport’s most outspoken athletes and who will seek to retain his world 200m title on Friday, is not one to miss such an opportunity.

During last weekend’s 100m competition, Lyles said he “knew” that Jamaica’s Oblique Seville would make a slow start in his heat after seeing the 24-year-old “panicking” before heading out to the track.

Whatever his motive, it did not have the desired effect.

Seville produced a personal best in the final to become the first man from his nation to win a global 100m title since Usain Bolt, with the dethroned Lyles taking bronze.

On Thursday night, Lyles moved to dishearten his rivals when, having already established a sizeable advantage, he did not relent and set the fastest time this year.

“After the first 50m I thought I heard [Great Britain’s] Zharnel [Hughes] running alongside me and I said to myself, ‘You ain’t catching me’.

“The message today was that they can’t beat me. Don’t miss the final, it’s going to be magical.”

Hughes previously admitted that disparaging comments by Lyles had “raised all the red in me” prior to last summer’s Olympics, where the American would win the 100m title.

So do mind games really work in athletics? What tricks are used? And how do they play out around the sport’s major finals?