Filippo Tortu made his season debut. The 4×100 Olympic Champion decided to try his hand at 100 meters, a distance he hadn’t attended for practically a year (the last time at the Savona 2023 Meeting, with 10.16 and 10.17 windy). The sprinter from Brianza took part in the Tom Jones Invitational in Gainesville (Florida, USA), as he is currently training in the States in preparation for the World Relays, the World Relay Championships scheduled for May 4-5 in the Bahamas.
The Italian, the first Italian in history to go under the ten-second barrier (in Madrid in 2018), has completed the test in 10.15 with 1.7 m/s of tailwind. Seventh place in his series and ninth in the overall time table for the 25-year-old, who hadn’t run this fast since May 28, 2002 (10.14 in Trieste, but windy). Discreet test for our standard bearer, who from lane 2 wanted to test his leg in view of the big events of the season, namely the European Championships in Rome at the beginning of June and the Paris 2024 Olympics in the heart of summer.
Filippo Tortu, European bronze in the 200 meters and last year author of a 20.14 on the half lap of the track (minimum for the Games) before winning the silver medal with the 4×100 at the World Championships, will compete in the relay in three weeks, but in the meantime he could perform in another individual test (speciality, venue and date are to be defined).
Today the spotlight was on the American Noah Lyles, but the World Champion of 100, 200 and 4×100 did not offer a sparkling performance. The owner of the house, placed in lane 6, he didn’t dip below the ten-second barrier and won in 10.01, prevailing in the photo-finish over compatriot Kenneth Bednarek (10.01 for the Olympic silver in the 200 metres). Third was the other American Kyree King (10.02), then fourth was the Japanese world champion finalist Abdul Hakim Sani Brown (10.04) and fifth was the Liberian Joseph Fahnbulleh (10.07) ahead of the Jamaican Ryiem Forde (10.12).
