Without Marcell Jacobs, the relay doesn’t go: immediately out

Seventh place in battery for reigning Olympic champion 4×100 relay team: goodbye final.

Already without injured Marcell Jacobs, the men’s 4×100 relay team suffers a poor showing at the World Track and Field Championships being held in Eugene.

The quartet composed of Lorenzo Patta in the first fraction, Filippo Tortu in second, Fausto Desalu in third and Chituru Ali at the back, did not go beyond seventh place in the battery that would have given the Azzurti a place in the final.

Penalizing the four Italians were mainly delays in the baton changes.

“It was really an immense disappointment. We were coming here as Olympic champions. It was not easy to get into the final because the level was very high, but we had to do more, we could do it. I had a hard time giving the baton and that was one of the reasons we went slow, we missed two out of three changes. We are going to the European Championships to aim for gold, we start from a beating but what I can say is that we all gave our best,” said Filippo Tortu.