FLORENCE: Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs will miss Friday’s 100m at the Diamond League meeting in Florence as he continues to recover from a back injury, the Italian athletics federation announced.

“The recovery process for Jacobs, after the problem that emerged in recent days, does not appear to be fully completed yet,” the federation said in a statement on Tuesday.

Jacobs pulled out of last week’s event in Rabat, where he had been due to race world champion Fred Kerley, because of a back nerve problem.

The Italian beat Kerley to gold at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but the pair have not faced off since.

Jacobs missed much of the 2022 season and withdrew from the world championships in the US after the 100m heats.

Budapest will host the 2023 world championships from Aug 19-27.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2023