Star high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim arrives in Budapest for 2023 Worlds
Qatar’s reigning Olympic and three-time high jump world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim has arrived in Budapest, Hungary, for the World Athletics Championships which will kick off on Saturday.
The 32-year-old has set his sights on an unprecedented fourth world championships gold. The nine-day competition, which will conclude on August 27, will bring together around 2,000 athletes from 200 nations in 49 events.
The three-time Diamond League trophy winner had started his season on a strong note, jumping to gold at the Silesia Kamila Skolimowska Memorial athletics meeting in Chorzow, Poland.
Barshim, who was recently named Best Asian Athlete of the Year for the second time in a row, will begin his fourth title bid with the qualification event on Sunday, August 20. His final will be on Tuesday, August 22.
Discus thrower Moaaz Mohamed will begin his qualification campaign on Saturday, August 18. The event’s final will be held on Monday, August 21.
Qatar’s last representative at the biennial event will be 400M hurdler Bassem Hemeida. Should he get past his heats on Sunday, the semifinal and final will be on Monday (August 21) and Wednesday (August 23) respectively.
Going purely by merit and consistency, Mutaz is Qatar’s best chance at winning a medal in Budapest.
Mutaz promised to give his best at the competition.
“I know my limit and how to improve myself. I’m here (in Budapest), I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’ll give my best,” he was quoted as saying.
“I haven’t been competing a lot this season but I’ve so much on my back. Nowadays, I’m a different high jumper. I’ve been competing for a while and I know my body. I understand much more about what to do and when to do it. It isn’t always about going out there and competing,” he said.
Mutaz said his training ahead of the World Championships had progressed well.
“Sometimes, training’s all I need. The result of a competition is only a reflection of what you’ve been doing in training. Sometimes you see me competing once or twice but the outcome is great. If I’m not competing, it doesn’t mean that I haven’t been working,” he said.
Standing in his way to gold in Budapest will be Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi, Germany’s Tobias Potye, USA’s JuVaughn Harrison, South Korea's Woo Sanghyeok, New Zealand’s Commonwealth Games champion Hamish Kerr, Australia’s Joel Baden and Ukraine’s world bronze medallist Andriy Protsenko.
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