Lyles, dethroned as world 100m champion on Sunday as he took bronze, captured gold in his favoured discipline five days later to secure his eighth global title.
He had produced a statement performance in Thursday’s semi-finals, setting the fastest time of 2025 in 19.51 seconds.
After a final where he was just 0.01 seconds slower, he celebrated by raising four fingers to the crowd.
It was at the World Championships two years ago that Lyles asserted himself as the dominant male sprinter on the sport’s biggest stages with three golds in Budapest, before claiming the Olympic 100m title at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Prior to the championships, Lyles told reporters that he would take bronze in the 100m if it meant he would get 200m gold by breaking Bolt’s world-record time.
He got the gold – but Bolt’s record remains elusive for now.
Lyles’ American team-mate Kenny Bednarek had to settle for silver – his fourth in a row across the last four Olympic and world championships.
Bednarek and Lyles have a tempestuous relationship, and almost came to blows at the US trials when Lyles stared down his opponent in beating him to the 200m title, to which Bednarek responded with a shove.
Bronze went to 21-year-old Jamaican Bryan Levell, with Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo fourth. Britain’s Zharnel Hughes ran a season-best 19.78 for fifth.
