World Championships 2017: Qatar's Barshim takes high jump gold

The Arab world's top athletes had a successful fortnight at this year's World Athletics Championships held in London, ending with a gold medal for Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim.

Narrated

2 min read

The New Arab

14 Aug, 2017

Mutaz Barshim ended two weeks of sporting success for Arab athletes [Getty]

Qatar's Mutaz Essa Barshim's gold medal-winning high jump on Sunday ended two weeks of sporting success for Arab athletes at this year's World Championships held in London.

Barshim secured the global high jump title his talent has promised for so long when he completed a faultless series at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, culminating in a winning leap of 2.35 metres.

The Qatari, whose 2.43m best is the second-highest in history after Cuban Javier Sotomayor's 2.45 set 24 years ago, has won silver and bronze at the last two Olympics and silver in the 2013 World Championships.

With the gold secured he went agonisingly close to clearing 2.40 but there was no disappointment and the 26-year-old can target the world record on home soil when Doha hosts the next World Championships in 2019.

Majd Eddin Ghazal of Syria cleared 2.29 to take bronze - his country's first world championship medal for a man.

Majd Ghazal won bronze for Syria [Getty]

Other Arab winners were Bahrain's Salwa Eid Naser, who scooped silver in the women's 400m, and teammate Rose Chelimo who was first to cross the finish line in the women's marathon with a time of 2:27.11.