Noah Lyles endured a rare defeat over 200m and gave fans a fright in the process as he pulled up with leg cramps at the US National Championship.

Lyles appeared to be cruising to victory in the 200m final but stopped short down the home straight and grabbed his leg, which drew audible gasps from the crowd at Icahn Stadium in New York.

College athlete Garrett Kaalund won the race in 20.04s, while Lyles limped across the line in 50.88s to finish last – just a fourth defeat since he began dominating the distance in 2018, although two of those losses have been in the finals of the last two Olympic Games, where he has had to settle for bronze on both occasions.

The 29-year-old was smiling as he approached reporters after the race however and quickly played down the severity of the issue, insisting he simply pulled up out of an abundance of caution when his left hamstring began to cramp.

“I just felt a grabbing sensation and I’m like, ‘Yeah, this is the time to stop, there’s no reason to keep pushing that’,” said Lyles. “So I just decided to cut it off. To be honest, it’s just a cramp. I just need to get stretched out and I’ve got some electrolytes here, just gonna chug them down. I’ll be good.”

Lyles had already shown his class at nationals this weekend, clocking an eye-watering world leading time of 9.79s to win the 100m on Friday evening, after running an even-quicker wind-assisted 9.76s in the semi-final.

The 100m Olympic champion admitted that a heavy workload over the weekend ultimately may have caught up with him in the 200m final.

“Running two 9.7s in one day is kind of crazy,” he added. “And I think I underestimated how fast that really was when trying to come back. This does show me what it takes to keep going and kind of puts a perspective on how kind of great [Usain] Bolt was.”

In the women’s 200m race at Icahn Stadium on Sunday, reigning world champion Melissa Jefferson-Wooden cruised to her second straight national title in a season-best time of 21.69s, with main rival Gabby Thomas choosing not to run at the event.

Although there are no World Championships this year, World Athletics is introducing the Ultimate Championships, where a $150,000 first prize will be on the line. The women’s 200m is expected to feature a full star cast of Jefferson-Wooden, Thomas and Julien Alfred, who finished runner-up to Thomas at the Paris Olympics.

“I feel like with women’s sprints today it’s like that every single time we line up,” Jefferson-Wooden said. “I watch their races. They watch mine. These next few years are going to be interesting to see.”