Olympic 100-meter champ Marcell Jacobs defends his European title
Rome: The Paris Olympics are less than 50 days away and defending 100-meter champion Marcell Jacobs still hasn’t dipped under the 10-second mark in nearly two years.
He’s got another gold medal to hang around his neck, though.
Jacobs clocked a n-best 10.02 to win on his home track and defend his European Championship title on Saturday.
“The times are not what’s important in these competitions, it’s the result that counts,” Jacobs said. “The goal is to be in my best form in two months when it counts even more and I know that I still have a lot of work to do.”
The Texas-born Italian looked smoother in his semifinal heat when he ran 10.05 despite easing through the finish. “Considering how I felt in the semifinal, we had calculated that I could have ran between 9.92 and 9.95,” Jacobs said. “So when I saw the display I wasn’t very happy. But at the same time, as I said, medals count more than times. Medals remain forever.”
After the final, Jacobs was shaking his left calf, which he said was due to a cramp that he felt toward the end of the race, not an injury. “I had three goals entering this season; to stay healthy, to defend my European title and to win at the Olympics again,” said Jacobs, who dropped his longtime coach last year and moved to Florida to train with American coach Rana Reider. “So far so good.”
Jacobs led an Italian 1-2 with Chituru Ali taking silver in a personal-best 10.05, and Romell Glave of Britain claiming bronze in 10.06.
The last time Jacobs broke the 10-second mark came in August 2022 when he won in 9.95 at the previous Euros in Munich.
Jacobs succeeded Usain Bolt as Olympic champion three years ago in Tokyo when he ran 9.80.
Jakob Ingebritsen, the Norwegian world champion whose father was recently accused of abusing one of his other children, won the 5,000 in 13:20.11 by surging ahead in the final 100 meters.
It was Ingebritsen’s fifth European title from the 1,500 to 5,000 — to go with his Olympic gold in the 1,500.
Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou confirmed he’s intent on defending his Olympic title by improving his own championship record with consecutive leaps of 8.65 in his final two attempts.
It was Tentoglou’s third consecutive European title. He also won the world title last year. Italian 19-year-old Mattia Furlani took silver with 8.38 to improve his world under-20 record and Simon Ehammer of Switzerland claimed bronze with 8.31.
