Mutaz Barshim of Qatar, who is in contention for a third consecutive world high jump title, reached the final of the 18th World Championships in Athletics on Friday in Eugene, USA.
Barshim unmistakably led the qualifier along with South Korean trio Sanhyuk Wu, Canadian Django Lovett and Ukrainian Andriy Protsenko who were with him in the first group qualifier, while Italian Olympic champion Gianmarco Tampere suffered a lot to secure his qualification and decided it by force his presence among the top 12 qualifiers in the first and second group of qualifiers.
Barshim, 31, has been absent from competition since his joint gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics with Tampere, until appearing at the Doha meeting, the first round of the Diamond League, when he placed second (2.30 meters) behind South Korea’s Sanhyuk Wu (2 ,33 meters) in May last year To avoid injury and in full readiness to enter the World Cup, in addition to participating in the Islamic Games scheduled in Turkey, starting on August 8 next year.
Absence of the Syrian ghazal
Syrian star Majd El-Din Ghazal missed the high jump qualification for the World Championships in Eugene after being unable to travel to the US.
Ghazal wrote on his Facebook account: “Unfortunately, Syria will not be present at the World Championships in Athletics in the United States of America…”.
He added: “The fatigue of the year has passed due to the delay in correspondence…”.
Ghazal was a Yemeni who made up for the disappointment of the last World Cup when he finished 25th and the Tokyo Olympics where he finished 19th, especially as he was elated to win a silver medal at the Mediterranean Games which was held last month in the Algerian city of Oran.
Syria won one medal at the World Championships in Athletics and Gada Shuaa won gold at the heptathlon competition in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1995.
Source: AFP.