Tenerife has long been the destination of champions to ramp up their training before a big event. Boxers, cyclists, athletes, and complete football teams are among the professionals you’ll see training in the Arona stadium, T3 in Costa Adeje, or at altitude in Teide National Park, preparing for a world title fight, the Tour De France, or in this case the Tokyo Olympics.
The new king of the 100 metres, Lamont Marcell Jacobs, is no exception as he trained in the south of the island for over a month in his build-up to Tokyo. Jacobs was born in El Paso in Texas, but is not from the United States, in fact, he doesn't even speak fluent English, he is Italian.
Golden boy Jacobs, the new Olympic 100m champion, is a powerful 26 years old, who beat the field yesterday at the National Stadium in Tokyo, with a new European record of 9.80 seconds to beat Fred Kerley and André De Grasse, into silver and bronze positions, the two favourites, at the start of the race.
Few, if not anyone, bet on the tattooed Italian to become Usain Bolt's heir, however, perhaps they had a secret: part of his preparation was carried out in Arona in Tenerife. Jacobs arrived in Tenerife on Boxing Day and pounded the Antonio Domínguez athletics track in Playa Las Americas for a month, practising starts, and almost wearing out lane 4 of the 100m sprint part of the track, exhaustive work that has earned him the crown as the fastest man on the planet.
The mayor of Arona, Jose Julian Mena, sent a personal message last night, not just to the Olympic sprinter, who is now a luxury ambassador of Arona, but to other athletes that had also trained here in Arona, which read:
“I want to congratulate Lamont Jacobs who, by earning gold in the 100 metres today, has become a luxury ambassador for Arona, where he trained in the months of December and January, before travelling to Tokyo 2020.
A few weeks ago, Adriana Cerezo, who also trained in our municipality, and gave us the first success with silver in Taekwondo, and yesterday, the Polish team surprised everyone by winning gold in the 4x400 mixed relay.
All these immense athletes have trained in Arona before leaving for Japan. From Arona to Tokyo.
Congratulations!”
As Mayor Mena pointed out, Jacobs isn’t the only champion who chose Arona to prepare for this year’s Olympics, the Polish mixed 4 × 400 relay, consisting of Karol Zalewski, Natalia Kaczmarek, Justyna Swiety-Ersetic and Kajetan Duszynski, also chose Arona to train before winning their gold, as did the Spanish silver medal Adriana Cerezo, who won the first medal for Spain in Taekwondo at the Tokyo event. The last part of his preparation was carried out in the multipurpose pavilion in Arona.
Meanwhile, Dutch cyclist, Annemiek van Vleuten, is the latest proof that Mount Teide is also one of the best places in the world to prepare for high-level athletes. The cyclist was proclaimed Olympic time trial champion in Tokyo, being the fastest in a circuit of 22.1 kilometres with 423 meters of accumulated unevenness.
The Dutch athlete was in Tenerife in March preparing for the Tokyo Games and could be seen riding her bicycle in Masca, on Mount Teide, and in La Punta. She follows in the footsteps of Chris Froome, Bradley Wiggins, and the Brownlee brothers who have all trained here, before cycling to glory.
Famously, in the past, World Champion Boxers, Nigel Benn and Frank Bruno used to train here in the south of Tenerife, with altitude training at Mt Teide. So next time you are driving through the National Park and see a cyclist or runner, take a sneaky peek, it could well be an Olympic or World Champion getting ready for a big event!
