{"id":1977,"date":"2021-08-01T16:12:52","date_gmt":"2021-08-01T16:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news25.org\/?p=1977"},"modified":"2021-08-02T00:23:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-02T00:23:58","slug":"tokyo-olympics-lamont-marcell-jacobs-claims-shock-100m-gold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.news25.org\/tokyo-olympics-lamont-marcell-jacobs-claims-shock-100m-gold\/","title":{"rendered":"Tokyo Olympics: Lamont Marcell Jacobs claims shock 100m gold"},"content":{"rendered":"
Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs claimed a shock gold in the Olympic 100m final, after Great Britain’s Zharnel Hughes was disqualified for a false start.<\/strong><\/p>\n Jacobs, who only switched away from long jump in 2018, streaked clear to win in 9.80\u00a0seconds, 0.04\u00a0clear of American Fred Kerley.<\/span><\/p>\n Canada’s Andre de Grasse won a second successive Olympic bronze in third.<\/span><\/p>\n World champion Christian Coleman and Trayvon Bromell, the world’s fastest in 2021, were both absent from the final.<\/span><\/p>\n Coleman,\u00a0<\/span>banned for whereabouts failures<\/span>\u00a0after missing three drugs tests, and Bromell, eliminated in the semi-finals, were joined on the sidelines by the long-retired defending champion Usain Bolt.<\/span><\/p>\n Few would have picked Jacobs, who was born in Texas to an American father but moved to his mother’s Italian homeland before his first birthday, as the Jamaican great’s successor.<\/span><\/p>\n Jacobs only broke the 10-second barrier for the first time in May.<\/span><\/p>\n But the European indoor 60m champion carried the momentum from his fast start all the way to the line to register a time faster than Bolt’s winning mark in Rio.<\/span><\/p>\n He was greeted by compatriot Gianmarco Tamberi, who had won a joint high-jump gold just minutes before and wrapped him in the Italian flag and an embrace.<\/span><\/p>\n “I don’t know, it’s a dream, a dream, it is fantastic,” said Jacobs.<\/span><\/p>\n “Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible.”<\/span><\/p>\n Second-placed Kerley admitted Jacobs was a new name to him.<\/span><\/p>\n “I really didn’t know anything about him. It was my first time racing him at the Monaco Diamond League [where Jacobs finished third in 9.99\u00a0seconds],” he said. “He did a fantastic job.”<\/span><\/p>\n Hughes will be left to wonder what might have been in a final stripped of its usual stars and big names.<\/span><\/p>\n His clear false start brought back memories of defending champion Linford Christie’s disqualification at Atlanta 1996 and denied him a shot of joining the most prestigious honour roll in athletics.<\/span><\/p>\n Hughes, who made the same mistake at last month’s British Championships, said it was the result of a sudden cramp in his calf.<\/span><\/p>\n The 100m final was almost overshadowed by an undercard of superb field events.<\/span><\/p>\n Venezuela’s\u00a0<\/span>Yulimar Rojas\u00a0added Olympic gold to her world triple-jump titles, finally claiming the world record she has threatened all season.<\/span><\/p>\n The 25-year-old already had victory wrapped up when she approached her final attempt, with no-one able to get close to her opening-round leap of 15.41m.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite a sub-par step phase, she still soared out to 15.67m to beat the previous 15.50m world record set two months before her birth by Inessa Kravets of Ukraine.<\/span><\/p>\n “Wow. It is a fantastic night,” said Rojas.<\/span><\/p>\n “I knew we had that distance in my legs to get it today. I was failing a bit in the technical aspect, but the last jump was one to give everything, and it was like that.”<\/span><\/p>\n Portugal’s Patricia Mamona took silver with a personal best 15.01m, but Colombian defending champion Caterine Ibarguen could only finish 10th.<\/span><\/p>\n There was drama of a different kind in the men’s high jump.<\/span><\/p>\n Qatar’s double world champion\u00a0<\/span>Mutaz Essa Barshim\u00a0and Italy’s\u00a0<\/span>Tamberi\u00a0opted to share gold rather than take part in a jump-off.<\/span><\/p>\n Both had three failures as they attempted to match the Olympic record of 2.39m and, with error-free records on countback, they could have fought for sole possession of the title.<\/span><\/p>\n However,\u00a0<\/span>the friends<\/span>\u00a0decided to end the contest and split the title, sparking ecstatic celebrations from Tamberi who has competed with a plaster cast at the end of his run-up as a souvenir of an Achilles injury that ruled him out of Rio 2016 and almost ended his career.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
Rojas jumping against history<\/h3>\n
Great Britain semi-final disappointment<\/h3>\n