Barshim Sets Sights On Historic Gold In Olympic Swansong

(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Fawad Hussain | The Peninsula

Doha: Mutaz Barshim will enter the Stade de France field today as the most successful Olympic high jumper but the Qatari superstar is eyeing more history in Paris.

The lanky athlete is targeting his second Gold which has never been done before in the men's high jump competition at the Olympics.

He will begin his gold quest as the most-decorated Olympian in the discipline, having won silver medals at London 2012 and Rio 2016 before famously sharing a gold medal with Italy's Gianmarco Tamberi in Tokyo.

The 33-year-old, who had also become the first high jumper to win three consecutive World Athletics Championships at Oregon two years ago, last month, announced Paris will be his last Olympics.

Despite being not at his best this season with a highest jump of 2.31m so far, Barshim will start as one of the title contenders as he has often proved himself a big-competition athlete.

“The target for me is always the Olympics. It's my fourth Olympics, it's very important to me and I want to sure that I am ready to fight and jump high,” he had said in Xiamen, China at the Diamond League earlier this year.

Tamberi, who produced the biggest leap (2.37m) of the year to claim his third straight European title in Rome in June, remains Barshim's top rival in the Paris challenge.

With both agreeing they will not share gold this time and will opt for a jump-off in case of a tie, thrilling contest is on the cards between the two friends.

New Zealand's Hamish Kerr will also be among the main contenders having won the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Glasgow in March, leaping 2.36m before registering wins in Monaco (2.33m) and London (2.30m).

America's world silver medallist JuVaughn Harrison and compatriot Shelby McEwen besides South Korea's 2022 world indoor champion Woo Sanghyeok will also take up the field hoping for glory.

The men's high jump qualification will get underway at 11:05am (Qatar time).

Qatar's Bassem Hemeida (right) competes in the men's 400m hurdles repechage round.

Samba set for semis, Hemeida and Ismail achieve impressive marks

Meanwhile, Abderrahman Samba is ready for the men's 400m hurdles semi-finals, hoping to seal his berth in the final.

The Asian Games gold medalist clocked 48.35 secs to advance on Monday and he hopes for an improved performance in today's semi-final scheduled to take place at 8:35pm.

Yesterday, the other Qatar hurdler Bassem Hemeida, who struggled with injuries this season, registered season's best of 49.64 secs in repechage but it was not enough to secure his place in the semi-finals as he finished on penultimate position in his heat.

“I thank Allah for my performance. Hopefully the results will be different in the next Olympics,” said Hemeida.

“I couldn't even run four months ago due to injury that affected my preparations. I ran my personal best in heat and bettered it today which means there is still more to come. I want to thank the federation for their all-out support,” he added.

Also, Qatari sprinter Ammar Ismail [Yahia Ibrahim] achieved his personal best of 44.64 secs in the men's 400m semi-finals, ending his Olympic campaign on a good note.

Ismail was also impressive in the heats setting 44.66 secs that confirmed his berth for the next World Athletics Championships.

Abubaker Haydar Abdalla

Abubaker to compete in men's 800m event

Qatar's middle-distance runner Abubaker Haydar Abdalla – a two-time Asian champion – will also be seen in action in the men's 800m event in Paris today. He booked his spot in the event clocking 1.44.60 secs at the Athletics Championships in Spain in April.

Algeria's Djamel Sedjati, world champion Marco Arop of Canada and Frenchman Gabriel Tual are among the favourites to win the title.

MENAFN07082024000063011010ID1108525959