World champion Mutaz Barshim gave Qatar a flying start in the Asian Indoor Athletics championships by winning the high jump gold with a brilliant leap of 2.38m here yesterday.
Barshim, who was crowned world champion for the first time in August at the London IAAF World Championships, easily won the continental competition at the Aftab-e-Enqelab sports Complex in the Iranian capital.
It was his fifth consecutive Asian indoor title, having won it earlier in 2010 (Tehran), 2012 and 2014 (Hangzhou, China) and 2016 (Doha).
The event is important for Barshim’s preparations for the IAAF World Indoor Championships, due to take place in Birmingham between March 1 and 4. He will he hoping to regain the title he last won at Sopot in 2014. 
Hamdi Amin, also of Qatar, took the bronze in the high jump with a leap of 2.15m while Iran’s Jahani claimed the silver with a jump of 2.25m.
Qatar also won two silver medals through Tosin Ogunode in the 60m and Yasser Salem in the 3000m to take their medal tally to four at the end of the first day of the three-day event.
Mohamed Issa Fadhala, general secretary of the Qatar Athletics Federation congratulated the athletes on their performance.
“It was an excellent day for Qatar as we won four medals, including a gold for Mutaz. We hope to continue our medal hunt over the next two days of the competition,” he said.
Nadiya Dusaniva of Uzbekistan clinched the gold medal in women’s high jump, clearing 1.87m while Iran’s Sepideh Tavakoli took the silver with 1.80m and Nadezhda Dubovitskaya of Kazakhstan the bronze in 1.80m.
Chu Yu Wang of China won the gold in the women 800m final with a performance of 2:09.30. Her teammate Hu Zhiying secured the silver medal in 2:10.81.
Meanwhile, Tatyana Nerozak of Kazakhstan won 3000m final with a time of 9mins:33.65secs.