After beating Noah Lyles, high school sprinter Issam Asinga seeks World Athletics Championship berth

Issam Asinga is turning heads in the U.S. athletics scene, and for good reason.

Is the world stage next?

The 18-year-old Florida native rocketed to three sub-10 second 100m times in April, including a win over 200m world champion Noah Lyles.

It was a big month for Asinga who ran wind-aided times of 9.86 and 9.83 at the PURE Athletics Spring Invitational in Clermont, Florida on 23 April. That 9.83 came against Lyles who was second in 9.92.

A week later, the senior at Florida's Montverde Academy was at it again with victory in 9.89 - again wind-assisted - at the Corky/Crofoot Shootout in Lubbock, Texas.

Asinga faces a tough ask to make the United States' team for August's World Championships with the likes of Lyles, reigning 100m champion Fred Kerley and fellow teen Erriyon Knighton ahead of him.

But the youngster certainly has his sights set on a place in Budapest.

"All I'm trying to do right now is show that I'm consistent," he told Citius Magazine in an interview. "I want to show consistency... show that [my times] it's not no flukes."

He added: "We're going for the World Championships. That's always been the goal - we're going for that. I'm ready to go out there for Budapest and do my thing."

Noah Lyles: 'I can see us racing on big stages'

Just over an hour after becoming the first American high school athlete to duck under 10 seconds in three different 100m races, Asinga also made history in the 200m in Lubbock.

He took third place on the day in 19.97, breaking Lyles' high school (non-pro) record from 2016 by 0.12. Knighton ran 19.84 after his junior year of high school, but had already turned pro.

Lyles himself is already impressed with Asinga, tweeting the day after he lost to him in the 100m: "I can definitely see us racing on the big stages if you keep improving," he wrote in a message directed to his young rival.

While Asinga is signed to compete for Texas A&M next season, the question for the rising star is whether he will forgo his collegiate eligibility to go pro, something Knighton did in February 2021 having just turned 17.

Florida standout Anna Hall recently went pro as well after the 22-year-old won heptathlon bronze at last year's Worlds in Eugene.

The men's sprinting landscape in the United States is as crowded as it has been in recent history with Lyles winning the 200m world title, Kerley leading an American sweep in the 100m and Michael Norman claiming his first global title in the 400m.

With Norman comfortable at shorter distances and the likes of world and Olympic 200m silver medallist Kenny Bednarek and former world 100m champion Christian Coleman still more than competitive, Asinga has his work cut out to make the team.

But in July's cut-throat World Championship trials in Eugene, where just the top three will join defending champions in Budapest, the youngster will hope to put his best foot forward and book his flight for Hungary.