Gianmarco Tamberi and Marcell Jacobs light up Rome

The words of Gianmarco Tamberi

Gianmarco Tamberi and his search for motivation: “I always need a stimulus. If I jump for fun I don’t do more than 1.85 or maybe 1.90 if there’è the clap, the audience clapping in time. Sunday in Silesia I wanted to come back and win and I did, in Rome I want to repeat”. Marcell Jacobs and his dinner in the Capital with Fred Kerley: “We arranged after the race in Poland, he asked me to go eat at some nice restaurant. We talked about the sponsor issue, the future, the opponents and our business. The deal was ‘loser, pay’. So I had to pay”. Andy Diaz and his ambition: “The Italian record I did at the Golden Gala last year, tomorrow I have to do it again by force”. The three Azzurri speak on the eve of the big event at the Olympic Stadium, edition no. 44, Italian stage of the Wanda Diamond League: appointment with the Golden Gala Pietro Mennea – Presented by IP Friday evening from 19.30.

Gimbo, who is looking for his first victory at the Golden Gala in his sixth participation (on the platform Friday evening at 9:10 p.m., among rivals the Korean Woo), updated everyone on his health condition after the problems in Paris: “I am definitely better from the physical point of view – he explains – I have done all the necessary checks: the blood tests and the ultrasound have averted stones in the body. The CT scan, having had two in the previous 15 days, è was not recommended. The last two colics I had the day after the race, then I started a medication that made me feel better and è was stopped just before Chorzow. Mentally, however, I am having a very up and down time, not every morning I wake up with a smile. But inside I feel an urge to start again and put myself on the line for the World Championships in Tokyo next year. Los Angeles? It would open a new chapter in my life and I would have to figure out how and with whom. If I have to think about the 2028 Games, I have to take it all back and figure out if feasible and how to do it”.

To those who ask whether in the current panorama the world record in men’s high jump is impossible, he replies that “my best quality è giving everything in important situations, with the blue jersey I transform, while in the meetings I struggle more. But I tried to nullify every mental limitation”. The desire to become a dadà è getting stronger and stronger: “Both, Chiara and I, love and adore children and would like to dedicate ourselves to them. So far it hasn’t è been the right time, but now we would love to death to be able to crown it”. A walk downtown Rome to the jewelry store: “I haven’t picked up the wedding ring yet but we went to get the measurements. We pick it up in a few days. Greg didn’t find it in the Seine so we had to provide…”, he jokes.

Jacobs, on the track in the 100 at 22.52 with 200 Olympic gold medalist Letsile Tebogo and 100 bronze medalist Fred Kerley, è returned to talk about the Paris Games final: “I gave it everything, I am happy to have had a very good season and an Olympic final, although as defending champion it is not enough for me. Paris lacked consistency in competing at that level: when you change everything è a gamble, I had a bit of difficulty at the beginning of the season and I could not get into the mechanism that my coach required right away. You may aim to approach the 9.80 in Tokyo but right now the goal è to have as much fun as possible: I do this sport because Ié like it, not because Ié have to. In Silesia I was worried that I would not be able to run under 10.10 and instead è came a 9.93: another race under 10 seconds after the Olympics has great value”.

The Olympic bronze medalist Diaz, who from 19.48 will be on the platform with the declared intent to improve the Italian record of last year in Florence (17.75), is already looking beyond the medal in Paris: “I am happy but not completely satisfied with the bronze, in these two years we have raised the bar of results – he explains -. In the qualification in Paris I looked like a kid, then in the final è everything was different. I knew I was representing a nation, I could not return without a medal. Golden Gala? We all know that the Olympic è a magical facility, and tomorrow, in my first competition in this stadium, I would like to surpass myself. Eighteen meters? Whyé no, I will try. And if someday there will be someone who will better Jonathan Edwards’ world record that has stood since 1995, that athlete would like to be me”.