Tokyo 2020: Lamont Marcell Jacobs wins men's Olympics 100m gold

TOKYO, Japan — For the first time since Athen 2004, a new Olympic champion was crowned in the men’s 100m and it came from an unlikely person on Sunday, Lamont Marcell Jacobs of Italy. Click here for the complete result

Jacobs who ran his three-fastest times ever so far here at the Tokyo 2020 Games, won the gold medal on his way to setting another Italian national record of 9.80 seconds. He became the first man from Italy to win the men’s Olympic 100m title.

“I’ve won an Olympic gold after Bolt, it’s unbelievable,” he told reporters. “Tonight, staring at the ceiling, perhaps I will realize.”

“I don’t know, it’s a dream, a dream, it is fantastic,” he added. “Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible.”

American Fred Kerley of the United States, one of the fastest men all-time over the 400m, stepped down in distance in the Olympic year and won the silver in his new discipline with a lifetime best of 9.84s, while Andre de Grasse of Canada repeated as the bronze medal winner, after clocking a PB of 9.89s.

Jacobs, the European Indoor 60m champion earlier this year, entered the Olympics with a PB of 9.95s. He improved that in his heat when running 9.94s and then smashed the mark again with his 9.84s performance in the semifinals.

His sensational run in the final here, also saw him improving his own European record from the semis.

The 26-year-old, born in Texas, USA, has now posted five sub-10 seconds performances in his career, and all have come in the breakthrough 2021 campaign.

“I’ve assembled a good staff around me in this last year; I’ve done a lot of work with my mental coach,” Jacobs revealed.