World Athletics Championships: Marcell Jacobs in semifinals, but what a scare

Marcell Jacobs takes big risk but goes to semifinals

They certainly broke out in a cold sweat for a moment for all Italian track and field fans, and especially fans of Marcell Jacobs: at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, in the batteries of the 100-meter dash, the Olympic champion of the specialty managed to get into the top three by just one hundredth and qualify for the semifinals, thus avoiding the risks associated with repechage.

10″15 was the time of the Gold Flames athlete, who still seemed far from his best condition but at least faster than the 10″21 of the Diamond League leg in Paris, the first and so far only race of the 2023 season run by Jacobs. Brandon Rodney, a Canadian athlete, came in just behind him with a time of 10″16.

Sunday afternoon’s date with the semifinals: it will take a much different test, for Jacobs, to attempt an assault on the final and possibly play it all out, in the evening, for one of the three medals if not for the most precious one, the gold.

Jacobs is not only the reigning Olympic 100-meter flat champion: he is the current holder of the European record (9″80), and he is also the 150th athlete in the history of the sport to go under 10 seconds in the queen of track disciplines.