Diamond League: Marcell Jacobs fourth but happy

Marcell Jacobs’ words after the Chorzow meeting

Marcell Jacobs s excellent moment continues, still well under ten seconds in the meeting in Chorzow, Poland, the fourth stage of the Diamond League, just a few days after the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala, scheduled for Friday evening at the Olympic Stadium in Rome.

The Tokyo Olympic champion sprints in 9.93 on the straight of the Slaski Stadium, facilitated by a wind behind him of +1.9. È the ’preview of the duel that will be relived on Friday evening in Rome: the first round goes to the U.S. Olympic bronze medalist in Paris Fred Kerley, who travels strongly in 9.87, one hundredth better than Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala who also will be in the starting blocks at the Olympic Games (9.88).

Also serious about the race is Jamaican Ackeem Blake, who evens his personal best with 9.89 and warns everyone: he’ll also be there for the win in Rome. Never really in the race Chituru Ali ;(Yellow Flames) delayed already from the start due to a muscle soreness: the European silver medalist gets up when there are still twenty to thirty meters to go and practically reaches the pace in 10.69. 

For Jacobs (Fiamme Oro) this is the fifth sub-ten-second descent this year after the two in Turku (9.99 and 9.92) and the two in Paris, in the semifinals and finals, 9.92 and 9.85, respectively, a time that gave him fifth place at the Olympic Games. "Now we have these days to work ahead of the Golden Gala,” said the Italian, “I want to run even stronger. After the Olympics, the mentality è è went down but I wanted to race even if I was a little down: the feeling è was quite good, I closed again six hundredths from the first, like in Paris. We are thereì not two tenths".