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Lamont Marcell Jacobs from Italy wins 100m sprint in 9.8 seconds

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Lamont Marcell Jacobs from Italy is the fastest man at Tokyo 2020, clocking 9.80sec to win the 100m sprint on Sunday (Aug 1).

Fred Kerley from the United States was second at 9.84 followed by Canadian Andre de Grasse at 9.89.

It was a European record for Jacobs, 26, breaking retired Jamaican star Usain Bolt’s 13-year hold on the blue riband event.

On winning the gold medal, Jacobs said: “I don’t know, it’s a dream, a dream, it is fantastic.

“Maybe tomorrow I can imagine what they are saying, but today it is incredible.

“It was my childhood dream to win an Olympic Games and obviously a dream can turn into something different, but to run this final and win it is a dream come true.”

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Dressed in light blue singlet and lycra shorts, the US-born Jacobs, in lane three, made a good start, held his nerve through the drive phase and powered through to the line.

Jacobs joyously ran into the arms of Italian teammate Gianmarco Tamberi, who had just shared gold in the men’s high jump and was waiting at the finish line.

He said: “Being here together is something spectacular. I believe in him and believed in myself.

“Seeing Gimbo (Tamberi) win the high jump gold fired me up a lot.”

De Grasse said he was happy with a personal best and another Olympic medal after a comeback from injury.

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“9.80 from the Italian guy, I didn’t expect that,” the Canadian added.

“I thought my main competition would have been the Americans, but definitely he came to play.”

China’s Su Bingtian, who ran 9.83 in the semi-final, was sixth in a time of 9.98.

Zharnel Hughes of Great Britain was disqualified due to a false start.

The Tokyo Olympics are the first since Athens in 2004 to take place without Bolt, who went on to win three consecutive Olympic 100m titles in Beijing, London and Rio de Janeiro, as well as three straight 200m crowns.

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And for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Games, there was no Jamaican in the final, Bolt’s long-time former teammate Yohan Blake failing to qualify from his semi-final.

The field was instead filled with a raft of relatively unknown sprinters, with Jacobs’ main claim to fame a European 60m indoor title earlier this year.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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