Marcell Jacobs, the coach’s truth and the diagnosis that looms over the future

Marcell Jacobs’ European Championships didn’t go as planned. The initial diagnosis by team doctor Andrea Billi points to a suspected muscle strain in the long adductor of his left thigh. An MRI awaits him in Rome. Paolo Camossi, the Italian champion’s longtime coach, was also in the stands when the injury occurred. He watched those moments with great apprehension and spoke about them to *Corriere della Sera*: “What happened? The unpredictable. I don’t know whether to call it bad luck or a life test from which to come back stronger, getting back on your feet as soon as possible.”

“He ran the 100-meter semifinal easily and calmly: 10.08. In the call room, after accelerating, he felt pain in his calf. When I saw him stretching on the track, I knew right away. From the stands, I tried to tell him not to run, but Marcell didn’t look at me: he wanted to honor the jersey; he wanted that third gold; he cared too much about this European title. His feet are his weapons, but if his calf isn’t right, his entire body has to adjust its running form, and you end up getting hurt. And that’s exactly what happened.”

“How hard is it to think that, with his 10.08 in the semifinals, Jacobs could have won gold? Very hard, but that thought didn’t last long. As a coach, the joy of seeing him run this season with better technique than he had at the Tokyo Games is even greater. The journey to Birmingham was perfect: two times under 10 seconds, holding his head high in the Diamond League, and the windy race in Austria (9.67 seconds). When Marcell trains, even if he’s feeling fine, I send him for an MRI. When we arrived in Birmingham, he was in great shape.”

The uncertainty now lies in the future: “Marcell is staying here with the team; he’ll undergo therapy twice a day so that by the time of Wednesday’s MRI in Rome, the hematoma in his adductor will have cleared up as much as possible. Only then can the exam give us an accurate picture. Everything else will depend on the situation we find. Is the season over? We don’t know. We can’t say that today.”