Down the straight of the blue track at Hodges Stadium is… Paris. Today Marcell Jacobs returns to the race after 230 days, in the first of 15 series of the 100 at the East Coast Relays in Jacksonville, on the campus of the University of North Florida, where he has been based since the end of October. And he, virtually, will get that pass for the individual event at the French Olympics that he still lacks. He won’t need to run in 10″00 or less, direct promotion standards. But simply cross the finish line. Because, in doing so, after the two sprints at the World Championships in Budapest and the participation in the meetings in June 30, will admit them to the Games. It is superfluous to explain the complex relative calculation. It is enough to know that – one hundredth plus one hundredth minus, depending on the placement – the Italian will only need to do 10″88 to hit the goal. Having said this, the debut, after the revolution of recent months, has many other reasons of interest. It will take place around 3.30pm local time, 9.30pm Italian time. The weather forecast speaks of scattered clouds with a temperature of 24 degrees, no precipitation and moderate winds. In short: almost ideal conditions.
The opponents
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The policeman from Brescia, barring last-minute changes – yesterday the athletes destined for the external lanes, compared to what was announced on Wednesday, were mixed up – will run in the sixth of nine. All eight rivals have personal bests under 9″98 and, in particular, Hakim Sani Brown (in second), Andre De Grasse (in fourth) and Trayvon Bromell (in fifth), his training partners under the care of coach Rana Reider , deserve the utmost respect. De Grasse, on the Italian night, should have run a 200 in the same area. Only two athletes, in this first glimpse of 2024, have meanwhile run the 100 under 10″ clear: the seventeen-year-old American prodigy Christian Miller (9″93) and the Nigerian Favor Ashe (9”99), both in Florida, respectively in Clermont, last Saturday and in Gainsville, on March 30th. In short: you can go fast in those parts. But what will matter most today will be finding a Jacobs (the “new” Jacobs) who is efficient and, above all, free from any physical conditioning. The rest will probably be a consequence.
In Diamond League
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From a meeting in the United States to one in China, it can be a short step. Especially if talent is the common denominator of Italian involvement. That of Mattia Furlani, who turned 19 two months ago – Jacobs’ teammate in the national team and in the Fiamme Oro – cannot be discussed. The player from Rieti, in Suzhou, in the second stage of the 2024 Diamond League, will make his debut outdoors after a great indoor season. First on February 17th, the 8.34 of the Ancona Absolutes, Andrew Howe’s absolute Italian indoor record improved after 17 years and the European junior record increased by 26 centimetres. Such a measure – the second world championship of the year in the hall after the 8.40 on 8 March in Boston of the vice outdoor champion, the Jamaican Wayne Pinnock – would have earned him the podium in the last ten global events, three Olympics and seven World Championships. Then, on March 2, the silver at the World Championships in Glasgow, with the same 8.22 as the all-around champion, the Greek Miltiadis Tentoglou. Now Mattia, busy with his high school diploma in June, is expected at the barrels every time he jumps. “He has enormous talent, if he is allowed to grow calmly he will go far”: the words of Mike Powell, world record holder since 1991 with 8.95, pronounced in October in a crackling face-to-face at the Trento Sports Festival, sound prophetic . It’s clear: we need to give it time. Already today, for example, the cast – which features the Christian Coleman-Fred Kerley challenge in the 100m and the return of Mondo Duplantis in the auction – is top-notch. Furlani, despite the absence of Tentoglou and Pinnock, will find nine athletes with a personal score of 8.22 and above. Leading them were the other Jamaicans Carey McLeod, bronze behind him and Tajay Gayle in Scotland, plus the Chinese Wang Jianan. The last ones, so to speak, were world champions: in Doha 2019 and in Eugene 2022. Among the potential rivals there won’t even be the twenty-five-year-old Indian Murali Sreeshankar, silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games, 8.41 in 2023: injured and undergoing surgery on a knee, his season is already over. As, remaining in the long run, that of the twenty-nine year old British Jazmin Sawyers ended, European indoor gold ahead of Larissa Iapichino. She also went under the knife: her right Achilles tendon, the one in her toe, was blown.
