What a great time to be an Italian. First it was Måneskin at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest, then it was victory against England at the Euros (we won’t talk about that one), and now, the country has taken home gold in the Men’s 100 metres race in Tokyo.
Lamont Marcell Jacobs ran the distance in just 9.8 seconds to become the new world’s fastest man – a title previously held by Jamaican Usain Bolt before he retired in 2017. He still retains the world record time for the 100 metres of 9.58 seconds.
Team GB’s entry, Zharnel Hughes, was disqualified from the Olympic race after a false start. Fred Kerley of the United States took silver, while bronze went to Andre De Grasse from Canada.
Marcell Jacobs’ success takes Italy’s medal tally to 27 at the time of writing – of which four of them are gold.
The long jumper’s victory has since prompted a significant response online, not least because Italy has a habit of winning things lately:
Italy are Eurovision winners, Euro 2020 winners and Men’s 100m Final winners. What a year. 🇮🇹— Scott Bryan (@Scott Bryan) 1627822465
Italy are having a good few weeks.— Gary Lineker 💙 (@Gary Lineker 💙) 1627822671
Italy winning Eurovision, The Euros and the Men’s 100m finals all in the same year? https://t.co/xmzzGoNrBt— Christina McMc (@Christina McMc) 1627823077
🇮🇹 Italy summer 2020: 🥇 Olympic men’s 100m 🏆 Euro’s champions 🏆 Eurovision winner’s 🤣 https://t.co/ShCZ3wV9XW— Belinder (@Belinder) 1627822776
GB false start and Italy win I’m having Euros flashbacks https://t.co/OuEfa280oq— Bri 🦖🇩🇲 (@Bri 🦖🇩🇲) 1627822635
Italy embarrassing England in the final AGAIN— Moody (@Moody) 1627822434
Looking forward to Italy winning the Ashes this winter— Nooruddean (@Nooruddean) 1627822630
2021 is a legendary year for 🇮🇹 🥇 22 May - Maneskin win Eurovision Song Contest 11 July - Italy win Euro 2020 1… https://t.co/bQr7aCvLnS— Nicolò Schira (@Nicolò Schira) 1627825614
Italy winning #Euro2020 and the 100m at the #Olympics in the same summer. https://t.co/nOocxe5GbI— Richard Chambers (@Richard Chambers) 1627822583
Italy are starting to annoy me at this point. They’re actually winning 100m sprints now. #100M #Tokyo2020 https://t.co/Kb4bavPr55— James (@James) 1627822581
Eurovision! Euros! High jump! 100m! This is well and truly Italy’s year 🇮🇹— ⭐ amy o'connor ⭐ (@⭐ amy o'connor ⭐) 1627822441
Italy, you can stop now.
Please.