Italy’s Marcell Jacobs wins 60m race with new European record

Rome: Italy’s Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs won a gold medal in the men’s 60m race at the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade on Saturday.

Jacobs edged ahead of defending champion American Christian Coleman, by three thousandths of a second, to set a new European record with a time of 6.41 seconds.

American Marvin Bracy took bronze with a time of 6.44 seconds.

Jacobs, who stunned the athletics world with his victory at Tokyo 2020 last summer, is the first reigning Olympic 100m champion to win the indoor 60m title, reports BBC Sport.

Jacobs also won a gold medal in Tokyo as part of Italy’s winning 4x100m relay team.

After Saturday’s race in Belgrade, Jacobs told BBC Sport that he was “so, so happy” with the result which was “very fantastic” after two Olympic golds.

Last month Rome mayor Roberto Gualtieri unveiled a proposal to recreate the Tokyo 100m final in the shadow of the Colosseum to mark Italy’s Festa della Repubblica holiday on 2 June.

However the proposed race seems unlikely to go ahead due to difficulties over the availability of athletes at a busy time in the sporting calendar and the fact that it would occur in the middle of the Diamond League track and field event, part of which – the Golden Gala – will be held in Rome on 9 June.