Jacobs closes with a flourish, party with the children and on the track

From our correspondent Claudio Lenzi

September 14
– Caorle (Ve)

Much desire for Jacobs. Not on the track, but outdoors. Among the people and for the people, finally. Four lanes along the sea of ​​Caorle, light show, crowd bath. And in three days her wedding with Nicole in Gardone Riviera on a day chosen not by chance, because it coincides with her birthday. It is difficult to imagine a better end of the season for the Italian champion, so smiling after a tug-of-war year, made up of great goals and sudden braking due to injuries. For one night there are no records to break and no opponents to beat, just guys chasing autographs and the champion there, at your fingertips.

Example

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5pm, it begins. The athletics clubs of Veneto and the youth teams of Fiamme Oro, Marcell’s sports group, gathered at the Chiggiato stadium. There is a lot of curiosity: they ask him about the Olympic gold, how he started, the passion that becomes a job. And he, who from an early age dreamed of becoming an example for others, pleases everyone: “I played football, but the ball went where it wanted. But I was fast and so I tried athletics. My dream was to win an Olympics. . If it was the greatest emotion? After a day and a half of disorientation, I told myself that there would be other finals to prepare and I started training even more intensely “. The secret is to have a dream. “They are the proof, everything has happened to me in my life and I started winning late, but only because I never gave up.” The boys surround him for one last photo and he – you can tell from the look – would not leave for any reason. “Yet it is the first time that this has happened to us this year – comments his coach, Paolo Camossi a little distantly: theirs are a winning combination more than ever. – I would like to launch a proposal, then: it would be nice if Jacobs trained once a month. in a different region, among school children and sportsmen who want to see it up close “.

Steòòa

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In Caorle there are really many who are waiting for the 100 and 4×100 Olympians. Hundreds line up along the waterfront track installed two hours before the event. And they are right: when Jacobs lands on the blue carpet of the Mondo (68 meters in all) it is worth being in a good position. It’s the right evening to see what is usually behind the scenes: Jacobs settling on a bed, music in his ears, and starting the warm-up massage on his crystal body; Jacobs who takes off his suit and discovers the same tricolor taping used in the success at the last European Championships in Munich last August 16 (“Just a precaution for the cold evening”, clarify from his staff); Jacobs who goes to the starting blocks, beats his chest, points the way, goes back to running and winning. “It was great, I want to thank everyone for coming here.” But that’s not all, there is still time to go back to the start and launch a relay of very young, incredulous athletes. “They are our future champions in Brisbane 2032 – jokes the president of Fidal Stefano Mei -. Marcell is an athlete of the past due to availability, you saw him tonight. With him and Tamberi we can imagine other events like these, outside the Many say that August 1st (the day when Tamberi and Jacobs won Olympic gold last year at a distance of about a dozen minutes) could be the celebration of sports. I would be very happy for the athletes, that since last year have given way to something unrepeatable. The Tokyo effect, in the sense of the emulation effect, is continuing “.

Party

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It must be said that Jacobs was in good company. In what was supposed to be the Italian speed festival one year after the magical nights in Tokyo, the other 4×100 Olympic gold medalist Lorenzo Patta and two of the most promising sprinters of the national team, Matteo Melluzzo and Alessio Faggin, also got full of applause. . To testify the inclusiveness of the event, also the women’s competition with the Paralympic champion Ambra Sabatini, Giuliana Chiara Filippi and the Paralympic bronze medalist Monica Contrafatto as speaker. Precisely because of the uniqueness of the appointment, gymnastics Olympian Igor Cassina, world cycling gold medalist Alessandro Ballan – he is still the last Italian champion, in Varese 2008 – and a great sprinter of the recent past did not miss. blue like Manuela Levorato. And Marcell? The next stop is the wedding, on Saturday on Lake Garda. Then three days of shooting for an advertising spot, a passage from the Milan Arena (on the 21st) and finally the Trento Sport Festival. “But I am already thinking of the honeymoon, return scheduled for October 15”. With another dream to come true: the only victory missing, the World Cup in Budapest in 2023.