The delegation of the Qatari athletics team have arrived in the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to participate in the nineteenth edition of the World Athletics Championships which will be held from August 19-27 with the participation of 2,000 male and female athletes representing all continents of the world.
The Qatari athletics team is participating in the championship with three of the most prominent athletes, the reigning world high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim in the high jump competition, runner Bassem Abdel Salam in the 400m hurdles, and the promising Moaaz Mohamed in the discus throw.
The reigning world high jump champion Mutaz Essa Barshim Olympic and world champion will defend his crowned title in 2022 Eugene World Championships for the third time in a row and will seek to immortalize his name as the best champion in the history of athletics for the high jump competition for the fourth time after becoming the first athlete to win the gold medal in the competition three times respectively and on three different continents.
International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) described the Qatari champion in a recording broadcast on its official accounts on social media platforms as the best in history in the high jump although he has the second best jump (2.43m) behind Cuban Javier Sotomayor who holds the record (2.45m).
Barshim has already posted the world’s leading mark this season, an impressive 2.36m at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial Diamond League meet in Chorzow, Poland, last month.
He then recorded a 2.33m mark at the London Diamond League despite finishing second behind American JuVaughn Harrision. However, the reigning Olympic title-holder Barshim will not only set his eyes on winning an unprecedented fourth World gold in a row but also the world record in this pet event held by Cuban great Javier Sotomayor since 1993.
Barshim came close to beating Sotomayor’s 2.45m mark in Brussels in 2014, but got injured while attempting to clear the bar at 2.46m.
The winning height in the high jump at the last three worlds championships (Eugene, Tokyo and Doha) – has been 2.37m.
Barshim’s teammate, Bassem will also try to make his presence felt at the Worlds, competing in the one lap hurdles event in the absence of compatriot Abderrahman Samba who missed most part of the season due to an injury.
Bassem is a former Asian Athletics Championships gold winner, and has a personal best of 48.64 secs which places him in the top 30 in the world this season.
The third member of the Qatar team Mohamed is a former U-20 World and Asian champion with a personal best of 62.48m.
Source: Qatar News Agency