Qatar's Mutaz Barshim aims high in Beijing

Qatari high-jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim has set his eyes on a world record at the ongoing World Championships in Beijing.

Standing 188 centimetres high, the 24-year-old Barshim can clear a bar 1.3 times his own height.

But in order to topple the 22-year-old world record held by Cuba’s Javier Sotomayor, Barshim needs to add two centimetres to seminal 2.43m jump he completed last September at a meet in Brussels.

Recalling the moment, Barshim beams: "It was just crazy. When the other guy jumped 2.40 metres, everyone thought it was over for me. [He] was already celebrating and I was thinking: Just wait."

"I was looking at my coach and he was like, “We can do it.” That moment I looked at the track and everyone was screaming, but I had tunnel vision.

"I went out there and my first attempt, 2.43 metres, was the second highest jump in history. The stadium was shaking. I couldn’t sleep the night after."

"My back was hurting for a week, my knee was hurting for a week but we did it. We made history."

Barshim, the first high-jumper to come through the Gulf region and capture medals on the international stage, is currently at the pinnacle of his sport, but his journey to the top was less than conventional.

Growing up in Doha, Barshim was introduced to track and field by his father, Essa, who was a competitive race-walker.

Barshim also spoke about the significant moments in his athletic career and opened up about his future aspirations.

"I got inspired to be a track and field athlete because he (his father) always took me with him to the track when he was training. I would see him running, training, doing his drills," recalls Barshim.

"One of the biggest moments that inspired me is that I saw him on TV finishing first in a race in the Gulf Championship."

Consequently, Barshim followed his father’s footsteps until his coach at Al Rayyan Sports Club suggested jumping and Barshim took up the long jump, triple jump and high jump.

"By the age of 14, I specialised in the high jump. I loved it, but I was really bad at it. Until the age of 17, I was always the worst," he recounts.

Then Barshim cleared two metres, a milestone that was followed in 2009 by his first ever medal, a bronze at a Gulf championship in Saudi Arabia, with a 2.14-metre jump.

Soon after, Barshim met his current coach Stanislaw Szczyrba, a Polish-born Swede who is responsible for helping Barshim comfortably jump 2.40 metres and above, win the 2010 world junior championship and secure a medal in London 2012.

He is one of only four men from Qatar to claim a medal in the history of the Games.

"The moment I got off the plane after [London], seeing like the whole country at the airport, was like ‘wow,’ he says.

"Now in Doha, you see a lot of families coming to the track, bringing their kids. They want to take pictures. It’s nice seeing more people wanting to do sport."

In 2014, he continued his streak, winning the World Indoor Championship — now he’s aiming to replicate that feat in Beijing, one jump at a time.

"I want to focus on going as high as possible, maybe 2.50 metres. Through that, the world record is included. That’s the best way to think about it: step-by-step. I want to be satisfied after I retire," says Barshim.

"I don’t want to retire and feel like I could have given more. That’s why I don’t have any of my medals or trophies out. I keep them in storage and only let them out for a photo shoot or something."

"Later when I finish [competing], I can look back and see what I’ve done." (Source: Gulf Times)