The Lamont Marcell Jacobs FACT thread

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

hcbingo44 wrote:

Okay, I see that you are trolling now - but I find myself unable to resist. +2.8m/s renders the jump ineligible for record purposes, but carries a wind adjusted rating of 1220+ according to World Athletics. Also 1,800 ft elevation is not considered high elevation for running or jumping, so I am not sure why you even bothered to mention that. (3,000 ft+ is the cutoff)

8.48m long jump is one the top 50 longest jumps ever recorded

8.00m would have landed him in the finals at Budapest this year. Another 8.00m jump would have placed him 6th in the finals

8.00m jumps earned him recognition as the Italian national champion

8.00m is a huge deal. You are moving + 11 meters/second as you take off of the board to get that far out. He showed signs that he had elite 100m potential well before he dropped a 9.80 in Tokyo. As a long jumper he already had the speed, he just needed to clean up his start.

Are you kidding me right now? It's not a legal jump. Period. It doesn't count. What is this "wind adjusted rating" you are talking about? 1227 is the standardized point score for a jump of 8.48 - it does not take into account it's not a legal performance. You are right regarding the elevation - it's not substantial for training effect but it's better than sea level. 1837ft is coincidentally higher than Rieti which is 1300ft and is often attributed to the quality of performance there.

Bottom line - Jacobs doesn't have one of the top 50 longest jumps ever recorded because it's not a legal jump.

Your whole defense of this guy centers around this "long jump excellence". Now that is "trolling". The "Italian national champion"? That's the extent of this "world class ability" at the long jump? He wouldn't have even medalled at the NCAA's this year.

Last one and this is beyond ridiculous - go back and read the original posts on this thread. "Signs of elite potential"? What signs? Prior to 2021 he ran 43 100m races in 2018,19,20. He never broke 10.0 seconds in any of those races. Furthermore what he did display was incredible consistency at his natural level as his seasons best performances over 2018-2020 were wind neutral (0.0) adjusted to 10.11, 10.12 and 10.19. That's not a sign of elite potential and that's not even a sign of progression. His best performance in 2020 was 10.10 with a 1.6 m/s tailwind (the adjusted 10.19) and exactly 365 days later he took 0.3 seconds off that time to win the Olympic gold? Not only is that absurd the only precedent for that is one guy - Usain Bolt who went from 10.03 in 2007 to 9.69 in 2008. But of course Bolt had run 19.75 for 200m in 07 and Jacobs is not Usain Bolt.

Just stop it dude - this long jump angle is painfully stupid and so easy to shoot down.

Salvitore Stitchmo wrote:

Well only a couple of threads on this guy which is shocking given that I'm going to guess absolutely nobody picked him to even medal in these games (Rojo can we check the comp and see if anyone even picked a bronze?). A lot of talk about what might be going on but I haven't seen anyone post these numbers yet because in track and field, one of the only things that can be definitively fact is what athletes actually run on the track.

Jacobs career progression at the 100m:

2011 11.19 Chiari (ITA) 20 MAY 2011

2012 10.68 Campi Bisenzio (ITA) 19 MAY 2012

2013 11.19 Chiasso (SUI) 19 AUG 2013

2014 10.53 Gavardo (ITA) 18 MAY 2014

2016 10.23 Savona (ITA) 25 MAY 2016

2017 10.82 Trieste (ITA) 30 JUN 2017

2018 10.08 Savona (ITA) 23 MAY 2018

2019 10.03 Padova (ITA) 16 JUL 2019

2020 10.10 Stadio Giuseppe Grezar, Trieste (ITA) 01 AUG 2020

2021 9.80 Olympic Stadium, Tokyo (JPN) 01 AUG 2021

He ran 10.68 as a junior (18) - the standard for the World Juniors that year in Barcelona was 10.64 so talent wise I don't know how we rate this - for me personally this doesn't point to any indicator of the kind of talent you need to win the Olympic 100m given the ability of Bolt as a junior (19.93 at 18) or even Gatlin (10.36 at 18). At the age of 20 Maurice Greene ran 10.19 , Gatlin 10.08 and Bolt 10.13 . Jacobs 10.53

Obviously 2018,19 and 20 things start looking a little better - he becomes a 10-low runner so let's analyze some facts/data.

If we continue looking at those 3 Olympic 100m champions since the year 2000, Greene ran his PR at the age of 24 (9.79), Gatlin ran his PR at the age of 23 (9.77) and Bolt his PR at the age of 22 (9.58) but this was just 6 days before his 23rd birthday. At the age of 24 Jacobs had run 10.08 - around 4 tenths of a second slower than the club of Olympic champions since the turn of the century he just joined. What is interesting is that this progression between age 20 and when Bolt, Gatlin, Greene ran their PRs is very consistent - it's around 0.40 seconds at 20 and the same when those 3 hit their career peaks compared to Jacobs at the same age.

Somehow at the age of 26, Jacobs managed to drop a staggering 0.28 seconds of his career best and a full 0.30 seconds off his 2020 best performance (let's look at 2020 in a second). To put that in context at the age of 26, Bolt had regressed marginally to 9.63, Gatlin 10.03 (though he did run 9.87 just after turning 27) and Greene 9.86. Not huge regressions from their best but something (0.05 to 0.13 seconds).

If we want to think the COVID affected 2020 season was something that halted us seeing that improvement from 10.03 down to 9.80, the fact is he ran a surprising 15 100m races outdoors in 2020 with a best time of 10.10 with almost all in the 10.10-10.30 range. All these numbers easily found on his WA profile (same for the Bolt, Gatlin, Greene data).

https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes/italy/lamont-marcell-jacobs-14453864

So everyone, draw your own conclusions from these facts - the man that succeeded Usain Bolt as the Olympic Champion. No further comments.