Mutaz Essa Barshim becomes the IAAF World Athlete of the Year
It was once again a proud sporting moment for Qatar as high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim became the first Asian and Arab athlete to win the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award.
The two-time Olympic medallist and current world champion beat British distance running ace Sir Mohamed Farah and South African 400 and 200M specialist Wayde Van Niekerk for the prestigious honour at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco yesterday, reported the IAAF website.
“I’m really happy, and so proud. It’s a moment of honour,” he said, once he realised he was the first high jumper to win the accolade.
“It’s breaking ground,” he said. “It shows if you work hard, have the right team around you, everything is possible,” he was quoted as saying by Gulf Times.
Barshim, 26, had been one of the most consistent and dominant athletes this year. Starting with a 2.35M leap in Jeddah in April and ending with a 2.40M jump in Eberstadt in August, Barshim pieced together an undefeated season across 11 competitions.
He won the world title in impressive fashion in London, clearing all of his heights up to his winning mark of 2.35M on his first attempt. A week after his London triumph, he jumped a world-leading 2.40M in Birmingham and followed it four days later with a winning jump of 2.36M in Zurich to secure the IAAF Diamond League title.
Barshim ended the 2017 season with nine of the best 11 jumps in the world this year, capped by his two 2.40M leaps.
He is the first high jumper in history to leap 2.40M or higher in five successive years. Barshim had earlier won the ANOC Best Asian Male Athlete Award.
Reflecting on a season which ended with the winning of the world high jump title, Barshim said: “Since I jumped 2.43 in 2014 I had so many issues with my back and knees. So 2015 and 2016 were up and down years, I had to change my run up. Started almost limping. Thank God I felt I could high jump without hesitation, with nothing to pull me back. It was like ‘when I jump there’s no pain.’ Feels like I’m free again. Feels like there’s something wrong — I’m jumping good!
“My coach said ‘if you can stay like this all season it’s going to be good.’ So we started slowly, trying to be more smart, step by step...”
Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam was named the female World Athlete of the Year.
Norwegian Karsten Warholm won the Male Rising Star Award, while the
Female Rising Star Award went to Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas.
