ROME: Home favorite Marcel Jacob retained his European 100m crown in Rome, taking two more golds for Team Italy to top the medal table on Super Saturday.
It was a record seventh discus title for Croatia’s Sandra Elkasevic on a night of high-quality athletes at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico.
There was also a third consecutive gold medal for Norway’s Obakob Ingebrigtsen in the men’s 5000m, Belgium’s Nafi Thiam in the heptathlon and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou in the men’s long jump.
But there was an Italian flair to the tournament, with the hosts topping the medal table with five golds, four silvers and a total of bronze. After two days of competition, the Netherlands won second place and won the gold medal. , silver and bronze.
Italian team captain Gianmarco Tamberi, world champion in the high jump, said he was aiming for a top spot after finishing seventh at Munich 2022.
Jacobs, however, continued his scoring streak, winning a season best of 10.02 seconds just seven weeks before the Paris Olympics.
Italian teammate Chituru Ali won silver in 10.05 seconds, while England’s Romel Glave won bronze in 10.06 seconds.
“I have three goals: health, defend the European title and then the Olympics,” Jacobs said.
“I’m very happy because after the race everything gets better.”
It took a magical 20 minutes for the Italians to deny Croatia’s Filip Mihaljevic a back-to-back Euro gold after first world silver medalist Leonardo Fabbri threw a championship record 20.45m.
A few minutes later, Lorenzo Ndele Simonelli ran 110 meters in 13.05 seconds to cheer Jacob’s final vote as the crowd roared like football fans.
Norway’s Ingebrigtsen also shone on the night break, taking the 5,000m lead at the bell, running to gold in a season-best 13:20.11.
“It was a championship, the level was high and I did my best,” said Ingebrigtsen, who is aiming for her third European 1500m title.
“More to come.”
There’s no denying that Croatian discus legend Elkasevic is better known by her maiden name, Perkovic, who won the event with a personal best of 67.04m.
The 33-year-old, two-time Olympic gold medalist and two-time former world champion, has been undefeated on the European stage since Barcelona in 2010, winning continental editions in Zurich, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Berlin. and Munich for the last 12 years. year.
“After concentrating in Rome, now we have to concentrate on Paris because we have to be in the right shape for Paris, gold, medals,” said Elkasevic.
“I am European champion, so the gold is done for this season. This medal means a lot.”
Thiam, a two-time Olympic champion and two-time world champion, collected his third European heptathlon gold in dominant style in a session loved by old heads.
He scored 6,848 points in the two-day tournament. France’s Auriana Lazraq-Khlass won the silver medal with 6,635 points, while Thiam’s teammate Nur Widts topped the podium (6,596).
“We will try to sharpen our form before Paris. We will try to work on the sprints and especially on the start,” said Thiam.
In the long jump, Tentoglou – Olympic and world champion – broke the championship record twice to win at 8.65m, becoming his third continental champion.
Tentoglou led three worlds before improving, last season’s best being 24cm at Simon Ehammer’s selection of Switzerland on Friday.
In the women’s 100m, the third championship record of the night, Cyrena Samba-Mayela clocked 12.31 seconds to finish ahead of Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji (12.40) and Poland’s Pia Skrzyszowska (12.42).
Sweden’s world silver medalist Perseus Carlstrom fought off Spain’s Paul McGrath to win the 20km race in 1 hour 19 minutes 13 seconds.
Italy’s Francesco Fortunato took bronze to cap a night of medals for the host nation.
