In Italy, no one has forgotten this image: Jacobs and Tamberi in each other's arms, on August 1, 2021 in Tokyo, a few moments after each winning the Olympic Grail, some twenty minutes apart .

This golden embrace had embodied the "magical" summer of Italian sport, returning from Tokyo with 40 medals, a record, including five gold in athletics, a few weeks after the victory of Roberto Mancini's Azzurri at the Euro football.

This time there will be no joint outpourings: Marcell Jacobs preferred to give up the "Golden Gala" in Rome, the city where he lives and trains, due to a small thigh strain - a priori now cured - which has already deprived him of the recent stage of the Diamond League in Eugene (United States).

The Olympic 100 m champion wanted to avoid any risk in view of the Worlds (July 15-24), where he intends to confirm his surprise victory in Tokyo.

Jacobs in support

The Italian public will be able to console themselves with the presence, over 200 meters, of the three other members of the Italian relay crowned with Jacobs in the Olympic 4x100 m: Filippo Tortu, Fausto Desalu and Lorenzo Patta.

Italian sprinter Marcell Jacobs, May 18, 2022 in Savona Marco BERTORELLO AFP / Archives

But the one who will be at the center of attention will be Gianmarco Tamberi, looking for a first victory on the banks of the Tiber.

"I'm sorry for Marcell. After what we did at the Games, it would have been fantastic to do it again here, in front of our home crowd, during the most important athletics competition in Italy," he told reporters on Wednesday. Olympic high jump champion.

"The most disappointed is obviously him. But he will come and support us. It's better that he takes care of himself and prepares as well as possible for the Worlds", adds the one who does not hide his own ambitions: " I have often performed well here, 2nd or 3rd, but I have never won. It would be the right moment, I really want it".

The jumper known for his "half-beard" is slowly gaining momentum.

After an average debut in Doha (2.20m) in mid-May, he passed 2.30m in Ostrava (Czech Republic) on May 31, the eve of his 30th birthday.

Medals and rings

"The start of the season was a bit difficult. If the objective is first to win tomorrow, I will try to continue to jump even higher, to settle some technical aspects in view of the Worlds", underlines the athlete settled in Ancona.

These Eugene Worlds, "Gimbo" made it the N.1 objective of his season, he who did indeed free himself from a weight by conquering gold in Japan.

This weight, it was this ankle injury in 2016 which had deprived him of the Rio Games, when he was having his best season (indoor world champion, European champion), which remained as a lingering memory.

In Tokyo, he was able to kiss with happiness the souvenir plaster of this bad period, taken in his luggage, after winning the gold medal, shared with the Qatari Mutaz Essa Barshim (2.37 m).

His rival and friend who will not be in Rome for the announced reunion.

"He told me he wasn't 100%. He didn't solve his physical problem. I'm sorry, but we'll definitely see each other again in Eugene," said the Italian.

Which, after the hoped-for medal at the Worlds, has another big date on his summer agenda: his wedding scheduled for early September.

With gold or silver wedding rings for the newlyweds?

© 2022 AFP