Our golden world champion Mutaz Barshim, the Asian record holder in the high jump, launches his outdoor season by taking part in the 2015 Diamond League athletics circuit at the Shanghai meeting in China, scheduled for 17 May. Barshim was crowned Diamond League champion last year and received a $40,000 prize after clearing 2.43 m at the Brussels final. Barshim is considered the second-best athlete in his event after Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor, holder of the world record of 2.45 m, which has stood since 1993, though the record has recently come under serious threat from Barshim and an elite group of the sport’s best specialists. Barshim previously competed at the Shanghai meeting in 2013, finishing first that year with 2.33 m.
Barshim has made a strong start since the beginning of this year, taking part in four indoor meetings and finishing first in each, breaking the Asian record twice. China has proven a lucky charm for Barshim, having won his first title at the Guangzhou Asian Games in 2010, as well as gold at the Asian Indoor Championships in 2012 and 2014. The chance appears open this year to break Sotomayor’s legendary record, given the intensifying competition and more than one athlete drawing closer to the world record, among them Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko (26), the outdoor world champion (2.41 m), and Russia’s Ivan Ukhov (29), the London Olympic champion, who has cleared 2.42 m. Qatar Athletics Federation president Major General Dahlan Al Hamad predicted the world high jump record would be broken this year by one of this trio, noting that specialists’ particular reading of athletics placed Mutaz Barshim among the contenders to break the record, especially given his excellent start to the year with an Asian record in Slovakia.
Al Hamad believes “Mutaz Barshim stands at the gateway to a world achievement.”
Al Hamad, who also serves as IAAF vice-president and Asian Athletics Association president, affirms that Mutaz Barshim “has become one of the world’s stars, deserves a great deal, and is one of the most prominent athletes in athletics at present,” noting that Mutaz “will break the world record – he has the ability to do it, along with great dedication and effort.”
The Diamond League is a series of athletics meetings organised by the IAAF, comprising 14 stages.
The IAAF had recently unveiled the 2015 Diamond League calendar, which will open in Doha in May and close in Brussels on 11 September.
Here are the dates:
15 May: Doha meeting
17 May: Shanghai meeting
30 May: Eugene meeting
4 June: Rome meeting
7 June: Birmingham meeting
11 June: Oslo meeting
13 June: New York meeting
4 July: Saint-Denis meeting, Paris
9 July: Lausanne meeting
17 July: Monaco meeting
24 and 25 July: London meeting
30 July: Stockholm meeting
3 September: Zurich meeting
11 September: Brussels meeting
