Marcell Jacobs, the Italian Olympic champion in the 100 meters, will make his season debut on Saturday in Jacksonville, Florida. The race will be a high-level challenge featuring three of his training partners: Trayvon Bromell from the United States, Andre De Grasse from Canada, and Hakim Sani Brown from Japan.
Jacobs is currently focused on preparing for the 2024 season, where he aims to defend his Olympic title in Paris and become the European champion in Rome. The last time he competed in the 100 meters was 230 days ago, on September 10, 2023, at the Zagreb meeting. Now, the time has finally come for him to return to the track.
The race will take place as part of the East Coast Relays event at the Hodges Stadium of the University of North Florida, where Jacobs has been training for several months with coach Rana Reider. Among the other athletes announced for the competition are Christophe Lemaitre from France, Ryiem Forde from Jamaica, Erik Cardoso and Felipe Bardi from Brazil, and Xie Zhenye from China.
The race promises to be of a very high level with many potential Olympic finalists. Jacobs won two gold medals at the Tokyo Games and set a European record with a time of 9.80 in the Olympic final. Bromell has won two bronze medals at the World Championships in the 100 meters, De Grasse is the Olympic champion in the 200 meters and has won six Olympic medals overall, while Sani Brown and Forde were finalists at the World Championships in Budapest. Lemaitre is a legend in French and European sprinting.
This will be the first opportunity to see Jacobs in action after months of training away from the spotlight. Among his competitors on Saturday, Sani Brown has already competed twice in the weeks leading up to the race, with times of 10.02 and 10.04, both in Florida. Xie has recorded a time of 10.06, while Forde has run in 10.12.
In addition to Saturday’s race, Jacobs has other important events on his schedule. He will participate in the World Relays in Nassau (May 4-5) to try to qualify for the Olympics with the Italian 4×100 relay team. He will then be present at the Roma Sprint Festival on May 18 at the Stadio dei Marmi upon his return to Italy. On May 28, he will compete at the Golden Spike in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and finally, he will participate in the European Championships in Rome on June 8 to seek gold in the 100 meters and the relay title on the final evening of June 12. His ultimate goal is Paris 2024.
Italian Version
