Italian Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs has withdrawn from Friday’s Diamond League meet in Florence, Italy. This would be the second consecutive race he’ll miss. The choice comes as Jacobs continues to battle with nerve ache, the identical situation that pressured him to withdraw from the Might 28 Diamond League meet in Morocco.
Marcell Jacobs has pulled out of the 100m towards Fred Kerley in Florence on Friday. https://t.co/m2gCHivXS0
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) Might 30, 2023
Jacobs has withdrawn from six head-to-head encounters with American sprinter Fred Kerley since Might 2022, resulting from varied well being points following his stunning gold medal win in Tokyo. Jacob’s absence paved the best way for Kerley, the present world 100m champion and the quickest man on this planet in 2022.
He mentioned on Twitter earlier than Rabat Diamond League that his harm just isn’t an harm: “It’s the results of a misstep, which retains me from competing in Morocco. I’m in robust bodily form technically and prepared for an amazing outside season. The problem is just postponed.”
Jacobs’ subsequent scheduled race is a 100m occasion on the Paris Diamond League on June 9, the place Kerley is not going to be collaborating. Nevertheless, the world 200m champion, Noah Lyles, is predicted to compete within the 100m.
The final time the reigning 100m Olympic and world champions competed towards one another was throughout the 2012 London Olympic remaining, that includes Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake. Bolt held each titles from 2013 to 2017 earlier than retiring, remaining the Olympic champion till Jacobs’s victory in Tokyo, the place Kerley received silver and Canada’s Andre De Grasse took bronze.
You possibly can stream all of the motion from Friday’s Florence Diamond League on-line with CBC Sports activities, beginning at 2 p.m. E.T
