Louie Hinchliffe ran the third fastest time of his career to progress to Sunday’s men’s 100m semi-final at the Olympic Games in Paris.

Hinchliffe (Rudolph Paul Hohn, Sheffield and Deere) clocked 9.98 seconds (-0.2 m/s) to win his heat at the Stade de France, just ahead of world champion Noah Lyles of the USA.

It is Hinchliffe’s third sub-ten second time this season, following a personal best of 9.95 at the NCAA Championships in Eugene and 9.97 secs at the London Athletics Meet last month.

“It was good to get him back after London, it was a good feeling,” he said, after beating Lyles to the line.

“I wasn’t really thinking too much about him, he wasn’t really near me, so I wasn’t really thinking too much about who was in the race.

“I think the pressure and environment will bring more out of me, trying to get to an Olympic final.

“I’m just running my races at the moment, I’m not really thinking too much about results, I don’t really want to chase results.

“The atmosphere is amazing. I think that environment brings the best out of all of us. You have to make the most of it, use it to your advantage.”

Hinchliffe is coached at the University of Houston by nine-time Olympic champion Carl Lewis, who was in Manchester to see him win his first national title at the Microplus UK Athletics Championships in July.

“He told me to run my own race, don’t try to get distracted by it all, just focus on me,” added Hinchliffe.

Zharnel Hughes (Glen Mills, Shaftesbury Barnet) also advanced in 10.03 secs (+0.2 m/s) but Jeremiah Azu (Marco Airale, Cardiff) was disqualified for a false start.

“Unfortunately I had an injury last month and London was my first race of the season for the 100m,” said Hughes.

“I’m using the rounds to get sharper and sharper, but I’m fine, I’m not worried about anything.

“I’m okay with it [the performance]. I could have got a better start, I was a bit lazy.

“It’s an amazing atmosphere. I was listening to it from the warm up area and I was just blown away because we haven’t heard this noise before. It almost sounds like football is going on inside here.

“Anytime you stand outside a football stadium you can definitely hear the crowd. It’s so lovely to hear the fans being here, the support when you come out is absolutely amazing.”

See Olympic schedule and results here