As part of his preparations to take part in the World Indoor Championships to be held from 9-11 March in Istanbul, Turkey, Qatari jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim took part in the fifth Asian Indoor Athletics Championships held in the Chinese city of Guangzhou from 18-19 February 2012. Our promising champion Mutaz managed to set a new Asian indoor record in the high jump with a height of 2.37 m, breaking his own previous record set two weeks earlier in Poland, which stood at 2.33 m. With his new record he took first place, claimed the gold medal and topped the list of the world’s best performances this season in the high jump, previously held by Russian jumper Andrey Silnov, whose mark of 2.36 m was set on 5/2/2012 in Moscow. Mutaz trains under the guidance of Swedish coach Stanislav, who has helped elevate Mutaz to the top of world high jumping. Meanwhile, teammate Mohammed Al Karni claimed two silver medals, one in the 1500 m in 3:58.04 minutes and the other in the 3000 m in 7:46.17 minutes.
