The summer surprise is back on track. Italian Marcell Jacobs, Olympic champion in the 100m last summermade his comeback on the straight line on Saturday in Nairobi, nine months after his title acquired in Tokyo.
60m world champion
The 27-year-old Italian is at the head of the gondola of the Continental Tour meeting in Nairobi (2nd world division) at the royal sprint platforms with the American Fred Kerley, silver medalist in the 100m in Tokyo, the Jamaican triple Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Namibian sensation Christine Mboma.
New king of sprinting (Olympic champion and European record holder in 9 sec 80), Jacobs had ended his 2021 season after his feat in Japan, where he had also won gold in the 4x100m with his teammates.
This winter, he ran a lot and once again shone in the 60m indoors by becoming world champion ahead of the American Christian Coleman, who had returned from an anti-doping suspension.
A little over two months from the World Championships in Eugene (United States), the Kasarani stadium in the Kenyan capital, home of the long distance and middle distance, offers expected opposition in the short sprint.
Fraser-Pryce present in women
The women’s 100m offers a duel of generations between Jamaican star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (35), eight-time Olympic medalist (including silver in the 100m and gold in the 4x100m in Tokyo), and Namibian Christine Mboma (18), Olympic silver medalist in the 200m.
Mboma, who exploded at the highest level in 2021, constantly pushes his limits and clashes with a seemingly unfinished running technique. Over 100m, a distance she is discovering in 2022, she ran in less than 11 seconds last week in Gaborone, Botswana (10.97), the mark for the very highest level in the world.
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The Nairobi meeting also marks the return of Kenyan 3,000m steeplechase world champion Conseslus Kipruto, who has not finished a race since 2019, and brings together Polish hammer throw stars Anita Wlodarczyk (three-time Olympic champion), Wojciech Nowicki (Olympic champion) and Pawel Fajdek (quadruple world champion).
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