Qatar’s Ahmed Bader will start his participation today at the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships in London, which concludes on Sunday.
Bader will participate alongside 22 other athletes divided into two groups (A, B), with the 12 best efforts qualifying for tomorrow’s finals.
The 21-year-old, who became the first Qatari ever to take part in the Olympic javelin competition, has hit the ground running, qualifying for the 2017 World Championships in London after topping the competition in the 16th GCC Athletics Championship in April.
Bader, who was the youngest competitor in his discipline in Rio 2016, has kept himself equally busy this year. Pushing himself in a two-month long training camp in Finland, competing in Arab and Asian championships, and taking part in the Diamond League series for the first time ever in his home town Doha in May.
Bader will relish his opportunity to compete with the more experienced athletes, especially because he has been chosen by the Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) for the ‘Olympic Hero — Tokyo 2020’ project with an eye on winning medals at the the next Olympic Games in the Japanese capital.
The other athletes, who are part of the project, include Mutaz Barshim, Abdallelah Haroun, Abderrahaman Samba and Ashraf Elseify.
Bader will be up against some of the best javelin throwers in the world, with Germany’s Johannes Vetter topping them all with an effort of 94.44m at this year’s Swiss International Athletics Championships.
Two-time Qatari Olympic medallist Barshim, who won silver in Rio last year and bronze at 2012 London Games, will be in action starting tomorrow.
Barshim seems to be in amazing form this year, having won all four of the Diamond League competitions he participated in, including at home in Doha. He is one of the few athletes, who have come close to beating the world record of 2.45m set by Cuban legend Javier Sotomayor.
Barshim has said time and again that the world record has been on his mind but winning gold is of utmost importance. A big clash is expected between some of the best high jumpers in the world, including Barshim, Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko and Canada’s Derek Drouin.
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