The 100 meters heats took place at the Olympic Stadium in Rome as part of the European Championships 2024 athletics, from which the two big names of the Italian movement were exempt: Marcell Jacobs and Chituru Ali they are in fact among the best twelve in the continental ranking and therefore they are admitted by right to the semi-finals scheduled for tomorrow evening.
Matteo Melluzzo struggled a bit at the start, was discreet in the central section but then tightened up further towards the end. The blue, who ran a personal best of 10.13 a few weeks ago at the Stadio dei Marmi, has finished in second place with a time of 10.21 (0.2 m/s of tailwind) behind the convincing Pablo Mateo (10.18) and thus passed the round without any particular worries (the best fourteen were promoted). There are important margins for the 21-year-old Sicilian, today able to precede the Dane Simon Hansen (10.22) and the Swiss William Reais (10.35), who could also be useful from a relay perspective.
Roberto Rigali he had to deal with the false start of the Frenchman Méba Mickael Zeze (among the most popular in his battery), but he was not intimidated by the second start: the start was good for the 29-year-old from Lombardy, the launch was very good enough to take command of the operations, but in the end it hardens and was overtaken by three athletes, finishing at fourth place with a time of 10.34 (0.8 m/s tailwind) behind the Polish Oliwer Wdowik (10.25), the German Robin Ganter (10.29) and the Irish Israel Olatunde (10.31). The first 4x100m competitor capable of winning the silver medal at the 2023 World Championships was guaranteed passage of the roundbut tomorrow evening he will have to improve.
In the third heat the British Chijindu Ujah won (10.23), recently back in action after the disqualification for the positive result of an anti-doping test which led to the return of the silver medal won by Great Britain in the 4×100 at the Olympics of Tokyo 2020 (where it was defeated on the track by the Italy of Patta, Jacobs, Desalu and Tortu). Melluzzo promoted with the second overall time of the evening, tenth for Rigali.
