Athletics: Olympic 100m champion Jacobs wins second 60m indoor race in a week
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Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs after winning the men's 60m race in Berlin on Feb 4, 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
LODZ, POLAND (AFP) - Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs won his second 60m indoor race in a week on Friday (Feb 11) as he builds towards an assault on the world title.
The Italian, who stunned sprinting with Olympic gold in the 100m and 4x100m relay in Tokyo last year, clocked 6.49sec to win in Lodz, Poland.
He edged out Michael Rodgers of the United States in a time that was just 0.02 off the Italian record he set in winning gold at the European Indoor Championships last March.
Jacobs, who won on his return to the track in Berlin last week, will also race in Lievin in France on Sunday (Feb 13) as part of his preparations for the World Indoor Championships, which take place in Belgrade from March 18-20.
Before winning in Berlin in 6.51 seconds, the 27-year-old addressed the suspicions over doping which lingered over his surprise Olympic triumphs.
"I would never do anything as an athlete competing for my country that would bring disrepute on me as a man or on my nation," Jacobs told the British newspaper Daily Telegraph last month when asked if he had ever taken banned performance-enhancing substances.
Also on Friday, Polish star Ewa Swoboda delighted the home crowd as she ran a world-leading 60m time of 7.00sec.
Racing for the first time in eight months due to injury, the 2019 European indoor champion's time put her equal third on the European all-time list alongside Dutch pair Nelli Cooman and Dafne Schippers.
