Paris 2024, Marcell Jacobs and 4×100 (with surprise exclusion): final with super thrill (danger averted)

Paris 2024, 4×100 in the final with a thrill. Marcell Jacobs, ‘not in the optimal lane, but we want to repeat the success achieved three years ago’

“My feeling is that I went very fast, but the data doesn’t say this.. I feel I did a good fraction, the change with Matteo came out well. With Fausto we have to review something because he came out a bit crushed and we lost time. The important thing today is to be in, even with a bit of a thrill, tomorrow will be another race”, the words of Marcell Jacobs, to the microphones of Rai, after the two heats of the men’s 4×100 relay at the Paris Olympic Games in which the Italians qualified with the fifth best time. Now they have to defend the title won 3 years ago in Tokyo 2020, dreaming of another great medal. “We will make all the necessary assessments, we will not have an optimal lane but we will try to push as hard as we can and repeat what we did three years ago. It is possible, I think it is possible”, said the Tokyo 2020 100m Olympic champion. On the final scheduled for Friday evening at the Stade de France in Paris: “We will leave the stadium and immediately have a group meeting to understand what worked and what didn’t, but we will certainly enter tomorrow with a different energy. We are in an Olympic final for the second time in a row and so tomorrow we will bring out that little something that allowed us to win three years ago”, concluded Jacobs.

Paris 2024, 4×100 in the final with repechage time. Tortu: “Second lane complicated”

Filippo Tortu, the last of the 4×100 relay runners for Italy who qualified for the final of the 2024 Paris Olympics, echoed Marcell Jacobs. “As always, I gave it my all. I tried to run as relaxed as possible even if I was a bit in the mix, a bit behind. We ran a sufficient race for the final, but not sufficient for our ambitions, for what we want to do. Tomorrow we will have the second lane, it will be very complicated to try to fight with the best of these qualifiers, but we are here for this and we do not give up. The atmosphere is fantastic, the stadium is crazy. Tomorrow we will have to run much better”.

Paris 2024, 4×100 Italy in the final. The words of Melluzzo and Desalu

“I think I did a good fraction, even the change with Marcell went very well.I’m very satisfied. We were a little afraid of not being able to get back, but thank goodness we’re in, so we’ll play it tomorrow”, explained Matteo Melluzzo, the first of the four Italian 4×100 athletes to reach the final at the 2024 Paris Olympics

“All in all I ran quite decently. The time reflected my feelings. because I had to scrape the bottom of the barrel a bit to find the energy after yesterday evening. The change with Jacobs was a bit squashed, but after that I ran quite decently. When I handed over to Filippo it didn’t go too badly”, the words of Fausto Desalu, who concluded by saying that “tomorrow is another day, so we’ll see.”

Paris 2024, Marcell Jacobs and 4×100 (with surprise exclusion): final with super thrill

Italy’s men’s 4×100 will defend their Tokyo 2020 Olympic title but… what a thrill: Marcell Jacobs and his teammates reached the final with the second (and last) repechage time, having finished their heat in fifth place (the first three went through) in 38”07. Luckily for the Italians, in the other semifinal, no one did better than them. Some less than perfect changes of baton affected Italy’s race. Filippo Tortu’s fourth fraction was very good, but in general all 4 ran fast, as mentioned, but fluidity in the passages was lacking.

Let’s look at the eve of the 4×100 semi-final and how the Italian quartet was formed.

Paris 2024, Marcell Jacobs leads Italy in the 4×100 relay that defends the gold at the Olympics

Marcell Jacobs is fine. The small problem with his thigh suffered at the end of the 100 metres which saw him finish fifth (9”85, six hundredths of a second behind the gold medal) Noah Lyles) did not cause any concerns and the Italian champion is ready for the 4×100 of the Paris 2024 Olympics where he and the Azzurri will have to defend the gold medal won in Tokyo 2020 (without forgetting the silver at the 2023 World Championships and the European title in Rome 2024).

Paris 2024, Marcell Jacobs and the Italian 4×100 relay: Chituru Ali out

With Marcell Jacobs, Italy will field Matteo Melluzzo, Fausto Desalu and Filippo Tortu (coming from elimination in the semi-final of the 200 meters run in 20’54, fourteenth overall time). It was in the air, but Chituru Ali, vice-champion of Europe in Rome, is out and semi-finalist in the 100 meters at the Paris Olympics.

Exclusion most likely due to technical reasons related to the relay: Ali would have been deployed in the fourth fraction, forcing Filippo Tortu to move (the last fraction is where he performs best as can be remembered from his sensational finishes in the Italian medals of recent years) and therefore to touch the balance built with such care in recent seasons.

The women’s 4×100 instead it will be composed of Dosso, Kaddari, Siragusa and De Masi.