Reigning Olympic 100m champion, Italian Marcell Jacobs, said on Thursday he wanted to be considered one of the favorites for the Worlds despite an “up and down” season, two days before the World Championships. Budapest which start on Saturday. “It hasn’t been an easy season for me, there have been a lot of doubts, a lot of worries, but I’m here,” explained Jacobs.
The transalpine athlete had a difficult start to the season: he twice had to give up 100m confrontations against world champion Fred Kerley due to back pain, and his only outdoor outing in 2023 l saw him finish seventh at the Paris meeting in 10 sec 21, far from the pace of the leaders.
“I had to face many challenges over the past two years, but I worked hard for these World Championships,” he said during a meeting with the press organized by his equipment supplier.
After grabbing a surprise gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 9.80sec, Jacobs was forced to retire after the playoffs from the World Championships in Eugene last year and still hasn’t faced Kerley. since their duel in the Japanese capital in 2021. “I’m sure it will be a very difficult challenge, but I want to stay focused on myself,” he said.
In Hungary, the 100m will be very open with the American Noah Lyles, the Briton Zharnel Hughes, the Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala and the Batswana Letsile Tebogo, all contenders for the podium. “I consider myself part of this competition (between favorites), but my season has not gone as I had planned,” recalled Jacobs.
“I know the eyes are on me because I’m the reigning Olympic champion, it’s a heavy burden… but I prefer to be the favorite because they respect the way I compete, that’s a plus” he added. Jacobs is also part of a group of sprinters who will be the subject of a Netflix documentary in the same style that the streaming platform produced on Formula 1 and the Tour de France.
