(Reuters) - Doping suspicions aimed at Italy's 100 metres Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs are embarrassing and unpleasant, the Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) president Giovanni Malago said on Tuesday. Jacobs claimed a stunning gold on Sunday, setting a European record time of 9.80 seconds in the showcase final in Tokyo despite having not gone under 10 seconds until this year. The Times wrote that athletics' dark history with doping "means the arrival of any new star will alert the more sceptical". "When you set a national or even continental record that number doubles, so much so that he said the number of checks was impressive. Jacobs was one of several high-profile athletes to wear new running spikes featuring "performance-enhancing" carbon soles as he won gold.

Source: The Star August 03, 2021 15:11 UTC