Qatar’s Mutaz Barshim during the men’s high jump qualification round yesterday. AFP
Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim, seeking a fourth world title, will get his chance to add to his honours after topping qualifying in the men’s high jump in Budapest, Hungary, yesterday.
Barshim, the hot favourite to win the title once again, was one of the three athletes who cleared the bar without knocking the bar on their way to clear the qualifying mark of 2.28m on day 2 of the World Championships at the National Athletics Centre. Barshim’s main opponents, Japan’s Ryoichi Akamatsu and USA’s Juvaughn Harrison were the other two.
Meanwhile, Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, who shared the gold medal along with Barshim at the Tokyo Olympics, also made it to the final, only after clearing the 2.28 mark on his final attempt. South Korea’s Sanghyeok Woo, who finished second behind the Qatari champion at the last World Championships held in Eugene, USA, also advanced along with Ukraine’s Andrii Protsenko who claimed bronze behind the duo.
Ukraine’s Oleh Doroshchuk, Italy’s Marco Fassinotti, Germany’s Tobias Potye, Australia’s Brandon Starc, USA’s Shelby Mcewen, Poland’s Norbert Kobielski and Cuba’s Luis Enrique Zayas make the rest of the field set to feature in the final tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s Bassem Hemeida secured his place in the semi-finals of the men’s 400-metre hurdles after finishing third in his heat. Hemeida clocked a time of 49.50 in Heat 3, while Frenchman Wilfried Happio won in 48.63 ahead of Norweigian World record holder Karsten Warholm who clocked 48.76.
Hemeida, a former Asian Athletics Championships gold winner, will compete in the first heat of the semi-finals tonight.
