American 200m sprinter Noah Lyles says he is tired of being constantly compared to sprint legend Usain Bolt.

Lyles, in an interview with Wanda Diamond League organisers on Thursday, said while the juxtaposition between himself and the 100m and 200m world record holder is “nice”, he is his own person.

An interviewer had posed the question to the sprinter, who ran 19.31s in Eugene, Oregon to claim the gold medal in the 200m in July.

“Yes. Very tired of it,” he said. “Just the fact that you called my name, Noah, means that I am not Usain Bolt which means that I don’t need to be compared to someone who’s not me. It’s nice and all but my journey is completely different from his.”

Lyles, giving credit to Bolt’s sprinting prowess, pointed out that when Bolt was his age, the Jamaican had already copped two world records while he is “still fighting to get my first.”

“That’s the journey that I’m on. I’m very pleased with what I’ve done, very pleased with how my journey has been going because what I have to go through is something that I, individually, will have to go and seek out and go through my trials and tribulations,” he continued. “I’m sure that he (Bolt) had his and that Carl Lewis and Micahel Johnson, they all had theirs and that’s what makes us all individually different but at the same time great.”

Lyles, 25, went on to say that he is hungry for success and goes into every race like he’s trying to break Bolt’s 19.19 200m world record.

“I’m not going to go into any race with any intention less than giving my best. It all depends on how good training has been going. Fortunately, it’s been going extremely well and I’m excited about tomorrow (Friday’s race at the Diamond League),” he said. “I’ve been checking my weather app, it’s been looking good. We’ll see if the wind is on my side and to be honest it looks like it could be a very great day to run.”

Meanwhile, Lyles also took the opportunity to heap praises on Jamaica’s female sprint legend, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.

According to Lyles, this season could see Fraser-Pryce breaking the 100m world record.

“I heard that she said she wanted to break the world record this year and I’m like ‘yeah, I can see that.’ Consistently dropping 10.6 like almost every race, that’s very scary because anytime you see somebody run a time, almost the exact same time very consistently every race, that means that they’re about to make a huge drop,” he said.

“I’m really just waiting for Shelly to have that moment when her body is ready, the day is right, the crowd is there, the wind is perfect and I’m not gonna be shocked when that world record pops up or it’s right next to it or way ahead of it.”

The next leg of the Wanda Diamond League is set to take place in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.