IAAF Diamond League: Barshim aiming higher in Eugene

Mutaz Essa Barshim will return to the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene on May 30, an IAAF Diamond League meeting, where he set the high jumping world on fire in 2013.

The 41st Pre Classic meeting organisers announced on Monday that Qatar’s world indoor champion would head a star-studded high jump competition at this year’s event.

On his last visit to Eugene, Barshim produced what was at the highest ever clearance on US soil with a jump of 2.40m.

He has since scaled even higher and is now on the brink of the formidable eight-foot barrier (2.44m).

Many called 2014 ‘The Year of the High Jump’ and Barshim’s finishing touch was winning the IAAF Diamond League final with 2.43m – higher in history than all but the world record-holder Javier Sotomayor, who jumped 2.45m back in 1993 when Barshim was just two years old.

Read more at: IAAF.org