ROME: The brother of Fili­ppo Tortu, a member of Italy’s 4x100m relay team that won Olympic gold in Tokyo, was suspended for three years on Thursday by the Italian Athle­tics Federation (FIDAL) for spying on two-time Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs.

Giacomo Tortu, himself a former athlete and current president of the Milan Raptors club, received two suspensions after he attempted to access Jacobs’s personal data with the help of a private detective agency, hoping, according to the Italian press, to demonstrate doping.

The first suspension, impo­sed by FIDAL, for 30 months, was for “violation of respect for and compliance with federal statutory and regulatory rules, as well as the principles of loyalty, integrity, fairness in sport, and discipline that constitute the foundations of sport”.

The second, six months, was added to the first “for having committed the offense with the intention of committing or concealing another offense, or to secure an advantage for oneself or another”.

FIDAL stated that Filippo Tortu had been “completely una­ware of the accused’s plans”.

Filippo Tortu and Jacobs were part of the Italian relay team that won a surprise gold at the 2021 Olympics ahead of Great Britain, a first in the history of Italian athletics.

Four days earlier, Jacobs, previously without a major title and little known to the general public, had won the men’s 100m, the blue riband event of the Olympics, in 9.80 seconds ahead of American Fred Kerley and Canadian Andre de Grasse.

Since then, despite repeated injuries, Jacobs won the Euro­pean 100m titles in 2022 and 2024.

He finished fifth in the 100m at the 2024 Paris Olym­pics and fourth in the 4x100m relay.

Last month, he failed to advance past the semi-finals at the 2025 Tokyo world championships. Alongside Filippo Tortu, he also won silver in the relay at the 2023 world championships.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2025