NOAH Lyles (left) rules the men’s 200-meter run. AFP

DOHA, Qatar (AFP) — Noah Lyles led a triumphant night for the United States at the World Athletics Championships just hours after the sport had been rocked by the suspension of controversial coach Alberto Salazar.

Lyles produced a gallant performance to win the 200 meters title while Donovan Brazier, who was part of the Nike Oregon Project that Salazar ran, became the first American to win the 800-meter world crown.

Sam Kendricks was the third American to take the gold medal as he came out on top of the men’s pole vault event to join legend Sergey Bubka in being the only men to successfully defend the title.

Lyles took time to get going but once he did and drew with Briton Adam Gemili he powered away, crossing the line and hugging his mother.

Despite some comparing Lyles to retired Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, the American has run faster than him both over 100 and 200 meters at 22 years of age, he said they were very different.

“Don’t say I’m the new Bolt,” he said. “I’m me. If you like me, I’ll happily entertain you. It’s my time.”

Brazier showed no sign of being affected by the four-year suspension of Salazar, breaking the 32-year-old championship record of Kenya’s Billy Koncellah.

The 22-year-old American charged clear down the back straight on the final lap to coast home in one minute and 42.34 seconds.

Brazier professed to be unaware of the investigation into Salazar when he joined the project and hoped his moment of glory would not be tainted.

“I think it would be really ignorant to associate me with that,” he said. “To even think that would be pretty ignorant.”

“I’m just very sad. I’ve had communication with Alberto, never been trained by him, but he is a good guy, and seeing him getting kind of bad reputation, it hurt him a lot.”

Kendricks beat Sweden’s European champion Armand Duplantis on countback when both failed to go over at 6.02 meters having succeeded at 5.97 meters in a final conducted notably in a sportsmanlike manner.

“Is it the best? That is a hard phrase to justify it is certainly the most memorable,” Hendricks said.

“The drama of the last hour made it one of the best, it was hard.

“You don’t win the pole vault by defense, you win it with offense.”

The American monopoly was broken by Australian Kelsey-Lee Barber who won gold in the final throw of the javelin to become the first from her country to win a world title in the discipline.

“Any medalist of any color is a huge thing in Australia,” said Barber.

“It was a matter of clearing your mind in the final round it is one thing to say you are going to do it is another to execute it so I am really happy.”

Shaunae Miller-Uibo’s bid to add world 400 meters gold to her Olympic title stayed on course as the Bahamas star sauntered through her semi-final.

The 25-year-old — who opted for the event she calls “her baby” rather than the 200 meters — said she had extra motivation to succeed at the championships due to the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Dorian last month.