Speed gives Italy double figures in the medal table. In fact, there are ten metals in total after two days of the European Championships in Rome with an evening that ends in the sweetest way: that is, with the golds for Lorenzo Simonelli in the 110 hurdles and shortly after with that of the Tokyo Olympic champion, Marcell Jacobs, in the 100. But in the same race there is also room forAli silver. So there are six medals in a single night, with 3 Italian golds in 42 minutes, something that has never happened before in the history of Italian athletics. But the spotlight is still on Marcell who, two years later in Monaco, confirmed himself as European champion and did so with a time of 10.02. It still doesn't drop below ten, but it is still the best performance of the season after a growth that has been constant in the last few outings starting from 10.11 in Jacksonville, up to 10.07 at the Sprint Festival in Rome and then 10.03 in Oslo. In the midst of the 10.19 in Ostrava which had caused concern, but 57 days before the eventual final of the 100 meters in Paris (scheduled for 4 August at the Stade de France), Jacobs – albeit without any great opponents – responded presently in front of his audience .
Yet Marcell expected to “run faster.” However, the limp at the end of the race was noticeable, but it doesn't worry the blue for now. “I had a bit of fatigue in my calf, I felt it starting to close in a little: but the important thing is to leave here as a European champion – he said -. Now let's continue working, I knew I wouldn't arrive in the best conditions of the year but I am very happy for this medal”. The Italian celebration then ends with Ali's silver in 10.05, while before the double in the 100m it was the Olimpico who celebrated Lorenzo Simonelli who in the 110 hurdles placed a 13.05 for an Olympic medal time in Paris. The 22-year-old Roman destroys the absolute Italian record, recording second place in the 2024 world rankings behind only Grant Holloway (13.03). «I want to see the final again, but I think I had a great race, I really didn't expect 13.05», he commented immediately. But he is growing like “the rest of the movement”, he explained. “I saw the results of Tokyo and said 'I want to get there too'”. And that doesn't mean he won't succeed in Paris.