Italian gears up for defence of Olympic 100m crown with a European leading mark at the Paavo Nurmi Games

A few days after winning the European title in Rome, Marcell Jacobs ran his quickest ever 100m outside the Olympics with 9.92 (1.5) at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku on Tuesday (June 18).

The performance will act as a warning shot to his rivals around the world and shows the 29-year-old is rounding into form ahead of defending his Olympic title in Paris in August.

It was Jacobs third fastest time of his career. He went sub-10 twice in one night, too, as he clocked 9.99 in his heat before improving in the final.

Runner-up was fellow Italian Chituru Ali in 9.96 with Olympic 200m champion Andre De Grasse of Canada third in 10.00.

Before today I was a bit worried that I hadnt run under 10 seconds yet this year, but its part of the game and now I have done it twice, said Jacobs. In the heats I had a really good start, the last part was average. In the final it was the other way around, so now we need to put the pieces together.

It wasnt a good night for Olympic 100m hurdles champion Jasmine Camachi-Quinn, though, as she limped off the track in the heats. Nia Ali later won the final in a meeting record of 12.48 (1.6) ahead of Nadine Visser, who equalled her Dutch record with 12.51, and Irelands Sarah Lavin with 12.66.

The womens pole vault also saw a meeting record with Nina Kennedy of Australia clearing 4.80m. Ella Junnila set a Finnish record of 1.97m to win the womens high jump and Neeraj Chopra of India won the javelin with 85.97m.

The womens 800m, meanwhile, saw Gabriela Gajanova, the Slovak athlete who finished runner-up to Keely Hodgkinson in Rome this month, win in 1:59.57. In the mens 800m Andreas Kramer clocked 1:44.65 ahead of Mark English, who set an Irish record of 1:44.69.