Worlds track and field, 4×100 eliminated but Marcell Jacobs won’t stand for it

The men’s 4×100 adventure at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo stops in the semifinals. Fausto Desalu, Marcell Jacobs, Lorenzo Patta and Matteo Melluzzo finished in sixth place in 38.52 while France’s 38.34 was the last useful time, but the Azzurri’s race was affected by a contact with South Africa.

After a lackluster start (0.235 the reaction time) for Desalu, in fifth lane, at the change Jacobs collides with South Africa’s first fractionalist Shaun Maswanganyi on his outside in sixth and is in danger of falling, he remains standing even though the result is compromised. The blue appeal is then rejected.

“I didn&#8220t have time to make the first foothold that I felt a bump: something like that had never happened to me – thundered Jacobs to the microphones of Rai Sport -. The goal was still to carry the baton to the finish line to try to figure out later whether it hindered me”.

“Obviously sorry because we were all super pumped up, we knew we could run well and then play for a good final tomorrow” concluded the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion.