«I would like to finish in front of everyone»- Corriere.it

PARIS Here it is again. Marcell Jacobs is man in black: he reappears, very tense, at the press conference on the eve of the 100m he has been chasing since the beginning of the outdoor season. There is his opponent, Noah Lyles, a 200-year-old converted to the sprint, a man of 9″95 in the season, acid green overalls, pigtails, witty (“If Fred Kerley sent me messages in view of the race? If he had something to say I believe he would have written to the Olympic champion directly»). And then there’s him, the king of Olympia who has come out of the lumbosciatica that robbed him of Rabat and Florence: Paris, on Friday evening at the Charlety stadium, was supposed to be his third match of the season and instead it’s the first, without really knowing what to expect .

«I’m looking for sensations, the priority is to break the ice with the Diamond League. I don’t have a time in mind, of course I’d like to finish in front of everyone but I’m here above all to have fun, the rest will come». Jacobs hasn’t run the 100m since the European Championship in Monaco, last August (gold, plastered). He reconnects the broken thread with the maximum circuit of world athletics after 700 days of absence. The wait is all for him, protected by his men, swiftly off to rest. «I am returning to the city of the 2024 Games, where I would like to reconfirm myself next year – he says in Italian, avoiding that English with which he is not yet familiar -. It will be a demanding year, between now and the Olympics: in between is the World Cup, the only medal I’m missing».

There is time to think about the gold collection. The priority is the first 100: «All my opponents have already raced, I’ll be the only one on the blocks without a seasonal time trial». Lyles is back from his embrace with Usain Bolt in Jamaica, Jacobs would be content – for now – with reconnecting with speed in the race. «I train for this: I want to run a lot, do many competitions». Which? How does the program change, in the light of the facts? That’s the question for coach Camossi: «Eh, if I tell you then you write it». Oibò. Top secret material, evidently (but the shoes are Puma, no more experiments with Nike). They ask him about his disappearance after the two golds in Tokyo (“After a long season, it seemed right to me to enjoy what I had done, to do something for myself and not for others”), about the illness that has kept him still up to now ( “I waited until I was well physically and mentally”).

The social jabs with Fred Kerley, the world champion who is not in Paris but who will meet again at the Budapest World Championship, are over: there was no more pleasure in provoking a rival stopped in the pits. “Fred wrote to me privately – Marcell let us know -, he wishes me to return to 100%”. The criticisms? «I don’t have to answer to anyone, I would just waste energy: when you give up on competitions, words are normal, they are part of the game. But if everyone talks about me and wants to beat me, it means I’m scary.” Let’s do that the game restarts on friday night on the paris blocks (shooting at 10.12 pm, live on Raitre and Sky Arena). And let the stopwatch speak from now on.