World 100m silver medallist Marvin Bracy-Williams says Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs needs to do his talking on the track after the Italian pulled out of a key matchup with an injury.
Freshly arrived from Los Angeles where he ran 10.03sec at the weekend, Bracy-Williams is the star attraction at the low-key Montreuil meeting outside Paris on Wednesday.
But he has his eyes fixed on bigger challenges later in the summer -- most notably from world 100m champion and fellow American Fred Kerley and Jacobs, who has never matched the speed or form that carried the Italian to a shock Olympic title in Japan two years ago.
In an interview with AFP, Bracy-Williams remarked that Jacobs backed out of a race against Kerley at the Rabat Diamond League on Sunday, saying he had a back nerve problem.
"I want to beat Marcell as bad as I want to breathe," he said. "He's one of the guys I haven't beat yet and he talks a lot of shit for a person that doesn't race.
"So I'm looking forward to competing against him. He's the reigning Olympic champion, everybody obviously wants to go at him.
"Fred is my favourite competitor. One of those guys that you know for sure is going to be on top of his game when he lines up.
"He has no fear. He makes you raise your game to a level that may not even be attainable for certain people."
Bracy-Williams, 29, used a series of smileys on social media to greet Jacobs' announcement that he was pulling out of the Rabat race against Kerley.
"I would never laugh at someone's injuries, but it was just very convenient there," he said. "It was time to line up against the guys that you've been running away from since the Olympics, and then this happens and so now we don't know when we'll get that matchup.
"At some point you got to race you know at some point you got to see us, whether a championship or whatever."
Bracy-Williams, who won world silver in Oregon last year after returning from an American football career, continued his steady start to this outdoor season by finishing fifth in the 100m at the Los Angeles Grand Prix this weekend.
He said he expected a faster time in France on Wednesday as he builds towards the US trials for this year's world championships in Budapest.
"I think tomorrow is going to be nine-second performance. I definitely feel I'm trending in the right direction."
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