Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs said on Wednesday he yearned to be tagged as favourite going into the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, despite it carrying a great weight of expectation after a “rollercoaster” of a season.
Jacobs has had a difficult campaign, twice pulling out of 100m showdowns with world champion Fred Kerley with a back problem.
His sole outdoors outing this season saw him finish seventh in the Diamond League meeting in Paris, well off the pace in 10.21 seconds.
“It hasn’t been an easy season for me, there have been a lot of doubts, a lot of worries, but I’m here,” the 28-year-old Italian admitted.
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“I have faced many challenges over the last two years, but I’ve been working hard for these world championships.”
Since streaking to that surprise gold at the Tokyo Olympics in an European record of 9.80sec, Jacobs was forced to pull out of last year’s world champs in Eugene and is yet to face Kerley since their clash in the Japanese capital in 2021.
