Home » Athletics: this is who Lamont Marcell Jacobs is, the blue record holder in the 100 meters

Athletics: this is who Lamont Marcell Jacobs is, the blue record holder in the 100 meters

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A blue bolt from Texas. “My full name is Lamont Marcell Jacobs, but for everyone I am only Marcell”: this is how the twenty-six-year-old of the Fiamme Oro presents himself with simplicity. , signing the new Italian record at the Ottolia Memorial in Savona: 9 “94, 5 cents faster than Filippo Tortu’s (9” 99) on 22 June 2018 in Madrid.

The father is an American soldier whose name he bears, the mother is Italian: Marcell was born in El Paso, a typical western film city, used as an ideal setting by great directors such as Sergio Leone (“For a few dollars more”), Quentin Tarantino (“Kill Bill”) and the Coen brothers (“It’s not a country for old people”). The American parenthesis, however, lasts only a remnant of childhood because, due to the separation of the parents, Marcell returns to Italy at the age of one and a half, growing up with his mother Viviana in Desenzano del Garda.

“As an American I only have muscle fibers, I feel 100% Italian”, he always repeats to those who ask him about his origins, admitting, among other things, to “limp” a little with English. Sport, on the other hand, has always flowed in his veins and as a child he tried them all: swimming, basketball and football. On the green rectangle, a coach has a vision, as the new 100-meter record holder admits: «Since I never caught the ball, but I ran fast, he said to me: ‘Why don’t you try another sport like athletics?’».

Here, almost by chance, at the age of 16 the adventure on tartan begins, between sprint and long jump. Marcell focuses heavily on the latter, but an injury to the hamstring of the left leg in 2017, which forces him to a long stop, convinces him to convert completely to pure speed. Thus begins the ascent towards the Italian top, culminating this year. At the beginning of March he became European indoor champion of 60 meters with the best seasonal world performance (6 “47), while only two weeks ago he darted at the World Relay Championships in Poland, scoring an excellent 8″ 91 launched. Tortu’s outdoor primacy is in the sights and, at the first opportunity, Marcell hits the mark.

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«I am strong and combative, but also lonely, just like the tiger I tattooed on my back – he says speaking about himself -. I don’t usually open up very much, but if people know me, they understand that I’m not the person they expected. ” Tattoos are a real vice of Marcell. He is very attached to a sentence about friendship, which he carries written on his side, a blood pact with two friends from many years ago, and to his three children, whose names and dates of birth he always carries with him. Jeremy, the eldest, had it at the age of 19 from a previous partner, while Anthony and Megan were born from the relationship with the current girlfriend Nicole. “They followed me in front of the TV, they will be proud of me,” he exclaimed yesterday with a smile after his record-breaking shot.

He will have to change his nickname on Instagram, “Crazylongjumper”, a name that he wears tattooed on his chest and that peeps out of his tank top as he whizzes at full speed towards new records. Her healthy madness remains, but now she is devoted entirely to the queen competition and no longer to the jumping platform. On 22 June he will be back on track in Rieti and, in the meantime, the challenge has already been launched to his fellow-rival, Tortu, who was among the first to congratulate: «As we have always said, we stimulate each other, even from a distance. This new record will inspire me even more. Bravo Marcell! See you on the track ». And Italy enjoys the two blue lightning bolts.

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