Jacobs, disappointing comeback: seventh in 10”21. “A race to throw away, I had concrete legs”. Three records in Paris

In an evening of blazing stars, with two world records broken (Faith Kipyegon in the 5000 women, Lamecha Girma in the men’s 3000 steeplechase) and an all-time best performance (Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the two miles men), the star of Marcell Jacobs who returns to the 100m with a disappointing 10”21, seventh in a race signed by the 200m world champion Noah Lyles in 9”97.

In Paris, in the fourth stage of the Diamond League, the Olympic champion returned 297 days after his last outdoor competition, at the European Championships in Munich he won on August 16, 2022. But the condition he regained last year after difficult months is today far away. Jacobs starts well, stays on the same lines as Lyles and the Kenyan Ferdinand Omaniala while the Jamaican Yohan Blake lengthen before shutting down. Around 60 the decline is inexorable, as if Marcell is blocked and unable to unleash even a portion of his power. In the final, he also gives up, when he understands that his opponents – first of all Lyles in brilliant condition – are out of reach, the delay in preparation for the lumbosciatica that struck him before the meeting in Rabat are evident. “I didn’t mind the first part” he says disappointed at the end, “then I felt my legs not made of wood, but of concrete. In the last three weeks I haven’t been able to work at all, I haven’t been able to do what I wanted, but finally I’m back in the race. A race to throw away, sure, a bloody race, but I raced without problems. It’s been a while since I’ve done it for years, but going back to racing was what I wanted”.

After canceling the 1500m record at the Golden Gala in Florence, Kenyan Faith Kipyegon also broke the 5000m record in 14’05″20. Stimulated by the duel with the previous record holder, the Ethiopian Letesenbet Gidey who had set a 14’06″62 in 2020 and in Paris remained close to her until entering the last corner, yielding to the impressive acceleration of the Kenyan on the final straight. The Ethiopian was second in the end with 14’07” 94, in one of the greatest runs of all time.

At the beginning of the evening there was also a world record in a non-Olympic specialty. It is the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Olympic champion in the 1500m and a year later the world champion in the 5000m, who writes history at the Charlety stadium: the new record of the two miles (about 3.2 km) is his, with a time of 7’54” 10, more than six seconds less than the previous limit set by Kenyan Daniel Komen (7’58”61 in 1997). The Norwegian was guided by the “wavelight”, the luminous technology that indicates the pace of the record along the track. The two miles doesn’t actually have an official world record, but the best world championship performance is recognized by World Athletics.

An evening to forget also for the other protagonists of the 4×100 gold medal in Tokyo. Lorenzo Patta, Marco Ricci, Eseosa Desalu and Filippo Tortu (the first and the last two present in Japan) runs in 38”33, a time that probably would have earned him qualification for the World Championships in Budapest. The fractions of Patta and Ricci are good, but the out-of-sector change between Ricci and Desalu also makes Tortu’s positive closure useless: disqualification arrives for the blue relay, the place in the World Cup is not yet guaranteed.