Lamont Marcell Jacobs celebrates his 100m gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (© Getty Images)
Bolt, the fastest man on the planet, multiple-year epicentre and a synonym for the world athletics left deep emptiness when he retired. Even though many sports and athletics experts claimed that for a long time nobody would appear in the most attractive athletics male discipline – 100m Men – to shake the planet in the way the famous Jamaican did and was doing, and keep the level he laid out, all these opinions were denied by the “flying” Italian, Lamont Marcell Jacobs.
Chiselled body covered with tattoos, an attractive athlete got out on the track in Tokyo, blew away the competition at the Olympic Games and caused the world to lose its mind for him. A new ”queen of sport” boom who left the planet in awe is arriving in Belgrade and will present himself to Serbian audience. Until yesterday we could not even have imagined having a chance to watch the fastest man on the planet in our capital, and now it is reality, privilege even since the ”flying” Italian will chase two golds within only 11 days in 60m discipline in Belgrade’s Arena.
The golden Italian will have the first presentation at the Serbian beauty on 7 March when he will be one of the biggest stars of „Belgrade Indoor Meeting“, an athletics competition which will be an overture to the most important event to come – the World Athletics Indoor Championships 2022, which will be held at the Arena from 18 to 20 March.
The sports, professional, and life plot of 27-year-old Marcell Jacobs, the sprinter who is the best on the athletics tracks throughout meridians confirms his uniqueness. He is neither an heir nor a copy of previous champions in his discipline, he is unique and, using his own magic, he does miracles and writes a new sports story which we witness. Before he chose ”queen of sport” (first long jump, and now sprint), he had played basketball and football. He was born in America but, as a baby, he went with his mother to Italy, her home country, and became part of this country’s sports history. Being 27, along with gold medals and records he broke, he can also say that he is a father of three children.
What are you expectations for WIC 22?
“I am looking forward to the World Athletics Championships in Belgrade. I know that the competition will be at the highest level and it really inspires me. My expectations? I believe they have no limits.”
The European Champion in 60m indoor, Jacobs, who only in 2018 stopped competing in long jump and started training sprint, was one of the biggest surprises in Tokyo when he won the gold medal in 100 metres with the result of 9.80 seconds thus breaking the European record and becoming the first Italian in history to win the Olympic gold in this discipline. In May 2021, he broke the 10 seconds barrier for the first time in order to win two Olympic golds in August. The second gold in Japan was won by Lamont Marcell in the 4x100 metres relay race.
”Dreams come true.“
Marcel is coming to Serbia motivated and with two new golds he won in 2022 at the Meetings in Berlin and Polish Lodz. Have you ever been to Belgrade?
If so, are you excited for the fact you are coming back to Belgrade?
“I was in Belgrade in 2017, and it did not go that well. I did not succeed the way I hoped. But it was back then when I competed in long jump, and now is now! I am excited to be back”, Jacobs emphasises.
Athletics is a sports beauty, and its authentic representative is the fastest man on the planet, an Italian Marcell. And while it is usual that the prettiest and most attractive sportspersons who the whole world look at, who are the reason, because of the way they look like, for asking for a ticket more, are not at the same time the planet rulers in their disciplines, Jacobs is an example that everything is possible. The Italian made everything the whole and made lights of the world fields of play put him in the focus when he enters the big stage.
Considering the Covid-19 situation, which is ongoing for the last 2 years, do you hope that Belgrade’s Arena will be full?
“The last two years have really been hard for everyone. So many lives have been lost and so many people in my home region, in Lombardy, have lost people they love. Running (short tracks – sprint) is not like long jump or high jump where you can hear audience rooting for you, pushing you further. When you run, you hear nothing. Until you stop. The full Arena is important for sports and I really hope that, when Covid-19 pandemics is over, we will be able to go back to normal. That really good feeling – after the race when tension is gone and when you feel that the audience all around you supports you – I am looking forward to returning of such moments.”
An unusual athlete who Italy is proud of, who the planet likes, the world athletics superstar, Jacobs, has a new goal, and that is breaking the famous Bolt’s record. Records in athletics are long lasting. Decades go by until someone appears to move boundaries. Who knows, maybe in 2022 we become witnesses of new records, maybe in Belgrade and the Arena.
Tickets for “Belgrade Indoor Meeting” which will be held on 7 March 2022 in the Arena are in sales and you can buy them at the Tickets company selling points and on the website tickets.rs
