Olympic 100m champion Marcell Jacobs’ plans for an European golden double went up in smoke Friday after the Italian 4x100m relay team failed to make the final.
The quartet of Lorenzo Patta, Hillary Wanderson Polanco Rijo, Matteo Melluzzo and Chituru Ali were initially awarded a place in Sunday’s final with one of the two fastest non-automatic qualifying times, in 39.02sec.
But they were adjudged to have impeded the Turkish team, who lodged an immediate appeal.
Organisers ignored a counter-appeal by the Italians and granted Turkey a one-off re-run at Munich’s Olympic Stadium.
The Turkish quartet timed 38.89sec to beat the 39.02sec posted by Italy and duly took their place in the final, denying Jacobs the chance for a double after he’d won the individual 100m on Tuesday.
