European Indoor Championships beat Olympic champion Jacobs

On Saturday at the European Indoor Championships, Olympic 100-meter champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs was upset in the 60-meter by his unknown Italian colleague Samuele Ceccarelli.

Although Jacobs won his semi-final in Istanbul, he looked to be injured in the process, as he was much slower off the blocks in the final, where he finished in a distant second behind the lightning-quick Ceccarelli (6.48 seconds to 6.50).

One of the pre-race favourites, British sprinter Reece Prescod, got off to a terrible start and finished last, while Sweden’s Henrik Larsson won the bronze medal in 6.53 seconds.

Ceccarelli, 23, proved that his triumph against Jacobs at the Italian indoor championships was no fluke. Ceccarelli is an indoor specialist and is not among Europe’s finest in the 100m outdoors.

The new European champion admitted he was just as surprised as everyone by his meteoric rise this winter. His grandpa, Gastone Giacinti, played goalie for the then-Serie A team Foggia in the 1970s.

That was really insane. I was caught off guard by it. Over the last three years, injuries have prevented him from running a full season.

“I’m extremely thrilled with what transpired in the period of 50 days,” the author says, “since I didn’t know what to anticipate from this indoor season.”

Last year’s outdoor season for Jacobs was cut short due to ailments, and he has now stated that he has been dealing with a hamstring issue.

This isn’t the medal I was hoping for; I had my sights set on gold. My leg wasn’t feeling well today, so it was a challenging day. One of my teammates really stepped up.

As the indoor season has over, I will be training for the outdoor season from now on. As soon as I can, I want to be able to run again after injuring my hamstring.

It’s smooth sailing for Bol as he wins gold

World record holder Femke Bol had a much less tumultuous time of it in the women’s 400 metres, which she won in 49.85 seconds after pulling away on the second lap.

Although running almost half a second slower than the stunning world record of 49.26 she achieved in February, the Dutch athlete comfortably bested her colleague and training partner Lieke Klaver to defend the crown she had won the previous year.

The anticipation for Bol’s upcoming summer 400m hurdles battles with American world and Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been piqued by her exploits this winter and her enhanced pace on the flat.

Although almost being caught on the line by Belgian competitor Julien Watrin, Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm won the men’s 400 metre hurdles.

Warholm ran a 45.35, while Watrin broke the national record with a 45.44 after forcing the Norwegian into a dip finish that left him splayed out on the track.

For the third time at these championships, Great Britain’s Laura Muir won the women’s 1500-meter event by running a time of 4 minutes, 3 seconds. Silver went to Romania’s Claudia Mihaela Bobocea.

Muir has won three European indoor 1500-meter championships and two European indoor 3,000-meter gold medals, making him the British athlete with the most European indoor titles ever.

Keely Hodgkinson, also a Briton, qualified easily for Sunday’s women’s 800m final, where she will try to defend the title she won in 2013.

To the Turkish people, who are still grieving the loss of tens of thousands of loved ones in the recent earthquake that struck the country’s south, the victory of Tugba Danismaz in the women’s triple jump event was a moving consolation prise.

Her 14.31-meter leap was just enough to beat off Italy’s Dariya Derkach, who had a jump of 14.20 metres.