By Martin Quin Pollard
HANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Qatari high jumper Mutaz Barshim sailed to his third Asian Games title on Wednesday, adding another medal to an impressive collection for the reigning Olympic champion.
Based on form and previous performances it looked like South Korea’s Woo Sang-hyeok, 27, would be 32-year-old Barshim’s biggest challenger for gold.
In the end that’s what transpired in an almost carbon copy of the duel they had in the world championships in Eugene in 2022, which Barshim also won.
Barshim took the title with a jump of 2.35m, with Woo clearing 2.33m. Japan’s Tomohiro Shinno, 27, got the bronze with a season’s best leap of 2.29m.
From the start Barshim and Woo looked a class above.
Several times other athletes either struggled to clear or just made a height before Barshim sauntered in with his familiar rangy stride and cleared the bar by a big margin, triggering audible gasps from the spectators.
Woo, who has a much more direct and speedier run-up than Barshim, also looked confident early on.
Once Shinno failed on his third attempt at 2.31m it was left to Woo and three time world champion Barshim to fight it out.
The volume from the stadium announcers and the crowd was considerable, but Barshim, sporting his customary sunglasses under the floodlights, was the picture of calm.
Both he and Woo cleared 2.31m and 2.33m. But then Woo failed at 2.35m, a height Barshim cleared at his first attempt. Woo pushed the bar up to 2.37m and called on his fans and others in the crowd to get behind him, but the bar fell both times, handing victory to the Qatari.
Barshim then attempted 2.37m which would have beaten his season’s best of 2.36m. On his last jump, the bar looked like it might hold for a moment and spectators roared.
But immediately after it fell, Barshim smiled and then joined several Qatari team mates who had just won a medal in the 4x400m relay in a huddle and jig.
“It feels amazing to be honest,” Barshim told reporters.
“It has always been my dream to get three golds at these Games, especially because I could not participate last time because of my injury.”
Barshim could not compete in Jakarta in 2018 as he was nursing a serious injury, but against doctor’s advice and while still on crutches he went anyway to support his team mates.
“I really wanted to be there so bad, because when I was young in 2006, the previous Asian Games before I compete, I was a volunteer and holding the basket for the high jumpers,” he said.
“I really wanted to win that. So winning today my third goal after a bad injury, I think I should be really happy and satisfied.
“I hope this becomes the motivation for the next season, the Olympics season.”
Barshim was arguably the biggest track and field name at the Games. His personal best of 2.43m from 2014 is the second-highest jump of all time, behind Cuban great Javier Sotomayor’s world record mark of 2.45 set in 1993.
His long list of medals include silver at both the London 2012 and the Rio 2016 Olympics, then gold in Tokyo in 2021 which he famously shared with his rival Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi.
He became the first high jumper in history to win consecutive world championship golds in 2017 and 2019, then added a third in the COVID-19 delayed Eugene championships in 2022.
He also won world silver in 2013 and world bronze earlier this year in Budapest.
“We are very greedy as athletes, so we always want to do more. And that’s the nature of it. And I love it, but that’s the reality as well. So you need to go and push yourself to the extreme to the limit.
“I need a good vacation now, and then we’ll see what happens next.”
(Reporting by Martin Quin Pollard; Editing by Toby Davis)
