Tokyo Olympics: Italy's Jacobs wins first post-Bolt Olympic 100m gold

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Lamont Jacobs (right) of Italy celebrates after winning the men's the 100-metre final at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Sunday. — AP
Lamont Jacobs (right) of Italy celebrates after winning the men's the 100-metre final at the 2020 Summer Olympics on Sunday. — AP

Tokyo - Jacobs had fired a warning with a European record of 9.84 in the semifinals to become the first Italian ever to make the final

By AP

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Published: Sun 1 Aug 2021, 5:00 PM

Last updated: Sun 1 Aug 2021, 6:26 PM

Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs outshone a field of unusual suspects to claim a shock Olympic gold in the men’s 100 metres on Sunday, breaking retired Jamaican star Usain Bolt’s 13-year hold on the blue-riband event.

Jacobs, 26, timed a European record of 9.80 seconds, with American Fred Kerley taking silver in 9.84sec in one of the most understated major championship 100m races of recent times.


Canada’s Andre de Grasse, a bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Games, repeated the feat in 9.89sec in Tokyo.

“It’s a dream, it is fantastic. Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible,” said Texas-born Jacobs, who until 2020 had never gone below the 10sec barrier.


“It was my childhood dream to win an Olympic Games and obviously a dream can turn into something different, but to run this final and win it is a dream come true.”

Kerley said that he barely knew Jacobs. “I raced him once, in Monaco,” he said. “But I know nothing about him.”

De Grasse said he was happy with a personal best and another Olympic medal after a comeback from injury.

“9.80 from the Italian guy, I didn’t expect that,” the Canadian added.

“I thought my main competition would have been the Americans, but definitely he came to play.”

The athletes were introduced in a dramatic light show — the stadium floodlights were shut off and 12 projectors cast 3D images of the world, zooming in to the Tokyo skyline, and then the name of each sprinter.

The lights came back on, swiftly followed by a horrendous false start for Zharnel Hughes in lane four, the Anguilla-born Briton not even bothering to question his disqualification.

Dressed in light blue singlet and lycra shorts, Jacobs, in lane three, made a good start, held his nerve through the drive phase and powered through to the line.

Jacobs joyously ran into the arms of Italian teammate Gianmarco Tamberi, who had just shared gold in the men’s high jump and was waiting at the finish line.

“Being here together is something spectacular. I believe in him and believed in myself,” beamed Jacobs.

The race, run in stifling temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius (84 Fahrenheit), had a distinctly underwhelming build-up and feel to it as hot favourite Trayvon Bromell bombed out of the semi-finals in which China’s Su Bingtian and Jacobs unexpectedly set Asian and European records respectively.

The Tokyo Olympics are the first since Athens 2004 to take place without Bolt, who went on to win three consecutive Olympic 100m titles in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, as well as three straight 200m crowns.

And for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games, there was no Jamaican in the final, Bolt’s long-time former teammate Yohan Blake failing to qualify from his semi-final.

The field was instead filled with a raft of relatively unknown sprinters, with Jacobs’ main claim to fame a European 60m indoor title earlier this year.

The 100m in Tokyo, and the circus around it, has arguably been a pale imitation of Bolt’s glory years during which the charismatic Jamaican not only dominated the sprints but also captivated a truly global audience.

While the spectacle that Bolt brought to the blue riband event has been missing since his retirement in 2017, so also has been the emergence of a new generation of sprinting hopes.

Many have been lauded as the athlete to fill Bolt’s spikes, but no one has yet lived up to the considerable weight of expectation.

Added to that, the 68,000-capacity Olympic Stadium in Tokyo had no fans because of coronavirus restrictions in the Japanese capital.

Instead there were sparse pockets of athletes and team officials who did their best to create something of an atmosphere at what is normally one of the most widely anticipated events of the entire Games, commanding a huge worldwide television audience.

Following is the list of men’s 100 metres champions at the Olympic Games after Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs won in Tokyo on Sunday:

YEAR WINNER COUNTRY TIME (SECONDS)

2020 Lamont Marcell Jacobs Italy 9.80

2016 Usain Bolt Jamaica 9.81

2012 Usain Bolt Jamaica 9.63

2008 Usain Bolt Jamaica 9.69

2004 Justin Gatlin United States 9.85

2000 Maurice Greene U.S. 9.87

1996 Donovan Bailey Canada 9.84

1992 Linford Christie Britain 9.96

1988 Carl Lewis U.S. 9.92

1984 Carl Lewis U.S. 9.99

1980 Allan Wells Britain 10.25

1976 Hasely Crawford Trinidad & Tobago 10.06

1972 Valery Borzov Soviet Union 10.14

1968 Jim Hines U.S. 9.95

1964 Robert Hayes U.S. 10.0

1960 Armin Hary West Germany 10.2

1956 Bobby Morrow U.S. 10.5

1952 Lindy Remigino U.S. 10.4

1948 Harrison Dillard U.S. 10.3

1936 Jesse Owens U.S. 10.3

1932 Eddie Tolan U.S. 10.3

1928 Percy Williams Canada 10.8

1924 Harold Abrahams Britain 10.6

1920 Charles Paddock U.S. 10.8

1912 Ralph Craig U.S. 10.8

1908 Reginald Walker South Africa 10.8

1904 Charles Hahn U.S. 11.0

1900 Frank Jarvis U.S. 11.0

1896 Thomas Burke U.S. 12.0)


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