The four blue musketeers will be there, defending that golden rainbow that lit up the Tokyo night. The men’s 4×100 relay team secured a pass to the Paris Games with relative ease, in Nassau on the first day of the World Relays. And like Jacobs and his teammates, the two 4x400m teams also immediately obtained qualification, while the women’s 4x100m and the mixed 4x400m took their chances during the night, when the newspaper had already gone to press and the relay teams already promoted also tried to win the title.
To race immediately in France it was necessary to arrive at least second in the heats of the event in the Bahamas, the Azzurri with Jacobs, Roberto Rigali, Lorenzo Patta and Filippo Tortu finished behind the United States, hitting their goal on the first attempt, 38″14 against 37 “49 of the Americans, “We wanted to get to the top two without too much drama and we did it, we confirmed the strength of our team”, said a satisfied Jacobs after qualifying.
The girls of the 4×400 (Rebecca Borga, Ayomide Folorunso, Giancarla Trevisan and Alice Mangione) also celebrated, as did the boys of the 4×400 (Luca Sito, Vladimir Aceti, Edoardo Scotti and Davide Re), who hit the pass on the first try.
The girls of the 4×400 won their heat with an authoritative performance (3:26.28), like the boys in 3:01.68. Postponed to the second day (in the night between yesterday and today) the women’s 4×100 (Zaynab Dosso, Dalia Kaddari, Anna Bongiorni, and Alessia Pavese fourth in 43″08), and the mixed 4×400 (Riccardo Meli, Anna Polinari, Lapo Bianciardi and Alessandra Bonora). During the night, as mentioned, one of the other six passes was played.
As for Jacobs, he is the one with the most…widened shoulders, by love or by force, from the double responsibility that arises from the fact of being champion also on an individual level in the 100. But he doesn’t seem to fear the pressure, on the contrary: “We know that the changes were made very safely to qualify. We can try to take risks and push a little more. Our strength is being such a united group which allows us to run stronger and I’m really happy with this qualification Personally, having to confirm Tokyo I don’t think it’s a pressure, there’s a lot of motivation to get there and win again. I’ll do my best to win the 100 meters again and certainly the 4×100 as well.”
At the end of the heats, the Italians’ time was fourth overall, behind the United States (37″49), Japan (38″10) and Canada (38″11).
It can be improved, but for now it’s fine.
