– I would like to improve my time with the meeting in Berlin. This would be an important step in the development of my preparations for the most important event of the indoor season, ie the World Championships in Belgrade – Marcell Jacobs told us before the start of the Orlen Cup in Lodz.
The Olympic champion has gone crazy in Łódź. A great result in the 60-meter race
And he fulfilled his pre-meeting announcement. Already in the qualifying round he equaled the result from Germany – 6.51, and in the final heat he improved this result by two hundredths of a second.
6.49 is the third best result in the world and the best result in Europe this season. The Olympic champion was only 0.04 seconds short of reaching the top of the world lists (Terrence Jones from the Bahamas ran 6.45 in Lubbock on January 15). If he had reached 6.47, he would have equaled his life record.
Poland has good associations with Jacobs. “The gold of the HME influenced everything that happened before the Olympics”
This result comes from last year’s European Indoor Championships. There he won the gold medal and few expected it to be the beginning of his path to two gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, where he was the best in 100 meters and in the 4×100 meters relay.
– The runs in Łódź and Toruń were the first part of the most important season in my life. I remember them perfectly and now I feel how important they were: how the gold of the European Indoor Championships influenced everything that happened before the Olympics and how much confidence it gave me. I am happy that I achieved it, and then transferred my form to the stadium racing as well – Marcell Jacobs assessed in an interview for Sport.pl.
Jacobs remembers the entire “golden” run. “I felt that I was running to the finish line myself”
– I remember everything – he said about his “golden” race in Tokyo. – From the start and a good exit from the blocks of the British competing next to me for the moment I turned right, because I couldn’t see anyone next to me until the last meters before the finish line, when I felt that I was running on top of it alone and I won. I have a complete picture of every second of this run – he described.
A special moment just after the race was the joy on the track with another Italian Olympic gold medalist, high jumper Gianmarco Tamberi. – We have been friends for quite a long time. My first memory of Gianmarco was the 2016 European Championship, when he captained the entire team. On many occasions when things were going wrong, he tried to help me. The way he approached me, supported me in the most difficult moments, made this friendship only stronger. And joy in Tokyo? The most beautiful I could imagine, Jacobs recalled.
In 2021, the sprinter became not only an unexpected Olympic champion, but also a national hero of Italy, who experienced one of the best periods in the history of sport in their country. – Everything that is good for Italy began with the footballers’ victory at the European Championship. Everyone else, including us at the Games, wanted to play their roles. We also wanted to be heroes of the nation in this show, which someone later called “Italian Summer”. And I made it. I felt very special in this role as one of the main actors, assessed Jacobs.
“I’d like to try winter sports. But it could be too dangerous.” Jacobs stays in front of the TV and follows the Beijing Olympics
The Italian runner experienced the games in a pandemic – the first in history. In this sense, his start in Tokyo was also exceptional. – For me, the experience of the Games in a pandemic was not so difficult. Of course, what I felt most was that we were running in a practically empty stadium. This lack of fans was troubling. But the Japanese created the games that did not show so much that we have a pandemic. I didn’t feel it as much as I expected. This emptiness in the stadium also became easier to bear thanks to the actions of people on the spot – he assured.
– Do I follow the Beijing Olympics? I try to. Through the social media I show my support and cheer for the Italian national team. I personally do not know any of them. I would even like to try their sport, but for me, a person for whom legs are crucial in running, going skiing or snowboarding could be too dangerous. I stay in front of the TV, Marcell Jacobs laughed.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
