Olympic 100 meters champion Marcell Jacobs is scheduled to make a rare appearance over 200m at a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger meeting, on 18 May. Read more: Why Lamont Marcell Jacobs’ gold medal run is a win for global athletics?
Jacobs, who admitted earlier this year that he will step out of his comfort zone this season, will contest a 200m for the first time in four years when he lines up at the 11th edition of the Memorial Giulio Ottolia in Savona. He ran the 100m at this meeting last year in 9.95 seconds.
The Italian sprinter has several sub 10.00 seconds 100m clockings in his career, including his European record of 9.80 seconds, but only owns a personal best of 20.61 seconds in the half-lap event.
This performance, though, came at a time when his personal best in the shorter sprint event was a modest 10.12 and he was still channeling some of his attention on the long jump.
The 27-year-old also hasn’t competed in the 200m since 2018, while his PB is the only sub-21 seconds performance of his career.
In Savona next month, Jacobs will line up against Canadian two-time Olympic 4x100m relay medalist Brendon Rodney, who owns a PB of 19.96, and Olympian Yancarlos Martinez from the Dominican Republic, who clocked his PB and national record of 20.17 last year in Tokyo.
Martinez ran a wind-aided 20.57 (+2.3 m/s) to win the 200m at the Savona meeting in 2021.
Meanwhile, after showing a glimpse of what he’s capable of doing against the world’s best in 2020, Jacob enjoyed his global breakthrough last season when he won the European Indoor 60m title in the winter before going on to win a pair of gold medals in the 100m and 4x100m relay at the summer Tokyo Olympic Games in August.
The American-born European 60m and 100m record holder picked up from where he left off last term by adding another major championships title to his medal haul this year when he defeated American world record holder Christian Coleman in the 60m at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Serbia, last month.
Jacobs will be hoping to win his first world outdoor title at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 in Eugene, later this summer.
