(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Mutaz Barshim injured his ankle as he bravely went for the 25-year-old world record of legendary Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor at the Istvan Gyulai Memorial meeting on Monday night.
Having won the event with a world leading jump of 2.40 metres, the ebullient Qatari world champion took a shot at Sotomayor's mark of 2.45 by aiming for 2.46 in front of a capacity crowd in Székesfehérvár, Hungary.
But despite producing his finest leap at that height, he narrowly missed the mark. He had two more tries neither as close as his initial attempt in the process hurting his ankle.
It was a stark reminder of the challenges that lurk when an athlete pushes his body to its absolute limits in any would-be world record attempts.
The severity of his injury isn't known at the moment, but in a message to IAAF Barshim did confirm he twisted his ankle.
'I think that's my best attempt ever on 2.46m WR, Barshim wrote on his Instagram account. 'Good competition but unfortunately ended up with an injury. I hope that's not going to be so bad that's all I can say for now. Will know more after the check up tomorrow and the doctor opinion.
His appearance at tomorrow's Diamond League stop in Lausanne is now very much up in the air.
World indoor champion Danil Lysenko finished second on countback at 2.32m over Brandon Starc and Donald Thomas.
Meanwhile, Sergey Shubenkov powered to a 12.92 victory in the 110m hurdles.
Shubenkov, who was forced to the sidelines after a false start at the Paris leg of the IAAF Diamond League on Saturday, bounced back admirably, propelling himself to the No. 8 spot all-time, a slot he now shares with all-time greats Roger Kingdom and Allen Johnson.
Running in lane six, Shubenkov was virtually even with world and Olympic champion Omar McLeod, two lanes to his inside, over the first five hurdles. Shubenkov began to chisel together a small lead by the sixth barrier, one the Jamaican hit hard, knocking him out slightly off balance, momentarily out of his lane, and entirely out of contention. Shubenkov then forged on to the third sub-13 of his career, and the second in 13 days.
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