ROME— Lamont Jacobs, the Olympic 100 meters champion will compete in front of his home crowd at the Rome Wanda Diamond League meeting, the fifth stop in the 2022 series in June.
The American-born Italian sprinter who has already been booked to race in a number of high-profile meets this season, has added another highlighted fixture to his schedule.
At the Rome meeting on 9 June, Jacobs will take on USA’s all-round sprinter Fred Kerley, who is the reigning Wanda Diamond League champion and the Tokyo Olympic silver medalist.
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In a surprised result last season at the Tokyo Olympics, Jacobs became the first Italian sprinter ever to win a 100m gold medal at the summer Games when he stunned a very strong field that also included Kerley, to secure the global title in Japan.
The European Indoor 60m champion also set an Area Record of 9.80 seconds in Tokyo last summer, and he will be hoping to replicate that performance at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, later this summer.
Jacobs has also been in great form so far this season, copping the World Indoor Championships 60m title, while setting the European record in the event and lowered his own national mark twice during the winter term.
Meanwhile, Kerley started the 2022 outdoor season with some quality performances, including a 9.99 seconds clocking over the 100m, and the 26-year-old will certainly buzzing for another big challenge when he steps on the track at the Stadio Olimpico.
The world 400m bronze medalist who is unlikely to take on that event this summer at Eugene 22, won the Wanda Diamond League title last year with a pair of wins in Brussels and the final in Zurich.
Also lining up in the men’s 100m at the Rome Wanda Diamond League meeting next month will be Trayvon Bromell of USA.
Bromell, who finished the 2021 season as the world leader, with his personal best of 9.76 secs in Nairobi, Kenya, has already shown top form in 2022, clocking a slightly wind-aided 9.75 (2.1m/s) to dominate a strong field in Florida last week.
