The final day of the 5th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships witnessed a record being bettered in every other event, but Qatari youngster Mutaz Barshim take the sheen away from others with his high octane 2.37m world Lead in the High Jump on Sunday (19).

In fact Barshim was leading the six title defenders from last edition of the championships, which was held two years ago in Teheran, to Hangzhou, China.  Having here with a 2.33m area record set in Spala, Poland, just a week ago, Barshim was already the leading name at the two-day meet. The 20-year-old’s mark in Poland bettered the the previous continental mar, set by Chin's Zhu Jianhua 26 years ago, by two centimetres.

Although he could have easily won here with a lower height, the Qatari, the 2010 World junior champion and winner at the quadrangular Asian Games in Guangzhou that same year, wanted to prove that he wo ... Read more »