Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs withdrew hours before the last Diamond League meet before the world championships, a preventative move after he felt glute discomfort in training Thursday.
Jacobs’ coach said the sprinter withdrew from Friday’s Stockholm meet to not take a risk ahead of the world championships in two weeks, according to the Italian track and field federation.
“The situation is under control,” coach Paolo Camossi said, according to meet organizers.
Jacobs raced last week for the first time in more than a month. He won the Italian Championships in 10.12 seconds after missing races due to food poisoning and a muscle injury earlier this spring.
If Jacobs doesn’t race in the next two weeks, he will enter worlds ranked outside the top 30 in the world this year with a best time of 10.04. He won the Tokyo Olympic title in 9.80, lowering his personal best in all three rounds from 9.95 seconds before the Games.
Americans Fred Kerley and Trayvon Bromell are fastest in the world this year at 9.76 and 9.81, respectively.
In competition in Stockholm, Olympic bronze medalist Alison dos Santos of Brazil won the men’s 400m hurdles in 46.80 seconds, the world’s best time this year and the sixth-fastest time in history. With Olympic gold and silver medalists Karsten Warholm and Rai Benjamin missing time for health reasons, dos Santos is arguably the favorite for worlds.
Femke Bol won the women’s 400m hurdles in 52.27, which would have been a world record three years ago. Instead, it’s the 10th best time in history. Bol, the Olympic bronze medalist from the Netherlands, ranks second in the world this year behind American Sydney McLaughlin, who lowered her world record to 51.41 last Saturday and didn’t race Stockholm.
Brit Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m silver medalist set for an anticipated showdown with Athing Mu at worlds, was upset by Kenyan Mary Moraa.
American Chase Ealey won the shot put and now owns the world’s two best throws this year. Ealey was fifth at last year’s Olympic Trials but is now favored to become the first U.S. woman to win a world title in the event.
World champion Anderson Peters of Grenada won a javelin event that included the top five men in the world this year.
The Diamond League takes a break in July for the world championships, which are July 15-24 in Eugene, Oregon, live on NBC Sports, USA and Peacock.
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