Marcell hoping for an injury-free 2023 as he begins indoor season

Olympic and World Indoor champion Marcell Jacobs will seek his third consecutive 60m victory at the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais when he returns to the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Lievin on 15 February.

He claimed his first win in the French town in 2021, when he clocked 6.54 before going on to win the European indoor title in Torun and Olympic 100m and 4x100m gold at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

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The 28-year-old returned to Lievin 12 months later to triumph in 6.50, during a season that would be capped by him winning the World Indoor title in Belgrade in a European indoor record of 6.41. That time places Jacobs joint fourth on the World Indoor all-time list.

Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais is the second confirmed meeting of the season for Jacobs, who will first race at the ORLEN Cup Lodz, a World Athletics Indoor Tour Bronze meeting, in Poland on 4 February.

Marcell capped off an injury-riddled season last year with a win in the European Championships 100m. Last season he had to pull out of competitions including the Kip Keino Classic and the World Championships, having to deal with illness and muscle issues prior to Munich European championships.

“I am very happy with this result. It wasn’t my best race from a technical point of view and the time is not what I wanted, but it mattered crossing the line first after an outdoor season so complicated and full of injuries,” Jacobs said after the race.

Jacobs is the fifth global gold medalist announced for the Meeting Hauts-de-France Pas-de-Calais, joining pole vault stars Mondo Duplantis and Katie Moon (nee Nageotte), Olympic 1500m champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen and sprint hurdles ace Grant Holloway, as well as Olympic and world 800m silver medalist Keely Hodgkinson.