Doha, Qatar: In his fourth appearance at the Summer Olympic Games, Mutaz Barshim, 32, will again lead Qatar’s medal hopes as five Al Annabi track and field athletes are gearing up for this year’s Games in Paris. The high jump superstar – having also clinched silver in London and Rio Olympics – is aiming for his second consecutive gold after famously sharing the victory with his Italian friend and opponent Gianmarco Tamberi in the COVID-delayed Tokyo Games three years ago. The Olympics are scheduled to be held from July 26 to Aug 11 with athletics events getting underway on August 1.
Barshim faces a strong field in his bid to retain gold but hopes are high from the three-time world champion who has often proved himself a big competition athlete. The lanky athlete has shown improvement in every competitive contest he took part this year, leaping 2.27m to open his season in Xiamen Diamond League before raising the bar to 2.
29m in Shanghai. In his last event to date, he cleared 2.31m to win the What Gravity Challenge at home last month.
“The target for me is always the Olympics. It’s my fourth Olympics and it’s very important to me and I want to be sure that I am ready to fight and jump high. So everything I’m doing now is according to the plan to be ready for the Olympics,” Barshim had said after the Xiamen meet in April.
Apart from Barshim, a trio of Qatar athletes – Abderrahman Samba, Bassem Hemeida and Ismail Doudai Abakar – are also set to grab the spot.