Marcell Jacobs and Chituru Ali, Olympic roar in Turku

Marcell Jacobs and Chituru Ali still star

After winning, respectively, the gold and silver medals in the 100 meters flat at the European Championships in Rome, Marcell Jacobs and Chituru Ali repeated themselves at the Turku meeting, winning not only the first and second place also on the Finnish track but also the Olympic pass, thanks to falling below 10.00, the minimum time for qualifying for Paris 2024.

Jacobs had actually already won the Olympic pass in the battery, with a time of 9.99. In the final, the Tokyo 2020 Olympian did even better, stopping the clock at 9.92, while Ali è placed behind him with his personal best, 9.96. In third was Canadian Andre De Grasse, with a time of 10.00.

Further back were the other participants in today’s final held in the Paavo Nurmi-dedicated facility: 10.14 for Ghana’s Benjamin Azamati, 10.17 for another Canadian Jerome Blake, 10.21 for Austria’s Marcus Fuchs, 10.32 for Finland’s Riku Illukka, 10.43 for Estonia’s Karl Erik Nazarov.

Jacobs and Ali had won their respective semifinals, the former with the already mentioned time of 9.99, the latter with 10.01. In the finals, for their opponents, there was really no history, so confidence grows ahead of the queen race of athletics, whose final is scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 4.