Reigning world champion and two-time Olympic medalist Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar won the high jump at the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League athletics meet by clearing 2.36m with non-aligned athlete Danil Lysenko edging China’s Wang Yu for second on fewer misses after both cleared 2.32 on Saturday.

Barshim thus continued his impressive track record in the high jump event in the third leg of the Diamond League Meet in Eugene.

Last year’s champion, Barshim, jumped 2.36 meters, the same mark he had cleared to win the 2017 World Athletics Championships in London.

Barshim started the seaon this year from the Doha meeting on May 4 and set a new record for the athletics championship after he succeeded in achieving a jump of 2.40 meters. (2.42 meters) and is only 3 centimeters behind the world record of the competition named for the Cuban Javier Sotomayor.

The talented Qatari star last year won all rounds of the Diamond League and was chosen as the 2017 Athletics Player of the Year.

Barshim is also scheduled to take part in the Monaco, Lausanne, Oslo and Brussels games before the end of the 2018 Asian Diamond League Championships in Jakarta on August 28.

Meanwhile, American Noah Lyles matched the fastest time in the world this year in winning the 200 meters in 19.69 seconds.

The 20-year-old former world junior champion, helped by a tailwind at the legal limit of 2.0 m/sec, set a personal best to equal South Africa’s Clarence Munyai for the top 2018 time and even shock himself.

“To be honest, I’m a little scared,” Lyles said. “I didn’t think I would be running this fast this season, this soon. I didn’t think I was ready but my body was.”

The showdown at Eugene, Oregon, marks the final “Pre” at 99-year Hayward Field before a major reconstruction ahead of hosting the 2021 World Outdoor Athletics Championships.

Source: The Peninsula