Athletics-Olympic champion Jacobs fends off Coleman to claim 60m indoor gold

Italy's double Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs overtook Christian Coleman to win gold by three thousandths of a second in the 60 metres at the World Indoor Championships on Saturday. He ended his 2021 season early citing exhaustion, and returned to the track in February.

Italy's double Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs overtook Christian Coleman to win gold by three thousandths of a second in the 60 metres at the World Indoor Championships on Saturday. Jacobs improved on his previous best in the 60 metres discipline by six hundredths of a second to claim a European record time of 6.41 seconds, but came up short of the world record of 6.34 set by American Coleman in 2018.

Coleman, who returned to action in January after serving an 18-month suspension for breaching anti-doping whereabouts rules, led for most of the race but his effort was undone by Jacob's late surge and perfectly executed dip at the finish line. Marvin Bracy took bronze with a time of 6.44 seconds.

Jacobs became the first Italian to win Olympic 100 metres gold in Tokyo last August, setting a European record time of 9.80 seconds in the final, before adding a second gold to his collection in the 4x100 metres relay. He ended his 2021 season early citing exhaustion, and returned to the track in February.