Marcell Jacobs makes winning - but rusty - return to 100m at Continental Tour Challenger meet in Savona

Italy's Lamont Marcell Jacobs has made a winning return to the 100m in his first race over the distance since clinching Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020 last summer, but was not on top form.

Competing at the Meeting Savona, a World Athletics Continental Tour Challenger-level competition, the 27-year-old looked rusty and laboured to the win in 10.04 seconds, only overhauling second-placed Arthur Cissé of Côte d'Ivoire in the closing 20 metres of the final.

Speaking after the race, he said: "I struggled a bit, I thought I could run better than in the heats. I lack sharpness, I thought that this week without training could help my conditioning, but I need to work more.

"It was the first race of the season and we have time to be ready for the Worlds which are our main goal," Jacobs added. "To be honest, I thought I could run better from a technical point of view.

"I couldn't perform as I usually do. There are many things to look at with my coach, [but] I finally made my [season] debut and I could race this time."

The outing in Liguria was Jacobs' first outdoor meet of the year after he was forced to withdraw from the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya, two weekends ago with what were said to be intestinal problems.

"[Nairobi] wasn't the best week in my life, but I don't want to find excuses [for today]. I raced because I knew I could. I was convinced I could do better, now we need to assess my performance, I couldn't do what I wanted especially in the second part of the race, but there's still time."

Meanwhile, his compatriot Zaynab Dosso took the women's 100m in a meet record time of 11.21 seconds.