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Tribune News Network
Managua (Nicaragua)
Athletics legend Javier Sotomayor of Cuba, who sensationally created the high jump record of 2.43 metres at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992, says only Qatar's world champion Mutaz Essa Barshim can break his world mark of 25 years.
'Only Barshim could break my mark', Sotomayor said in his presentation during a meet with Nicaraguan journalists, reports La Prensa. His world record has been under threat in recent years and 2018 marks 25 years of that 2.45 metres of the 'Prince of the Heights'.
He said he still remembers in the film of his head when he made the jump and the rod rubbing lightly on his back, but he did not fall, and felt an 'explosion' of feelings in his body. On Thursday, it was inevitable not to remember those passages for the great athlete.
"As of 2015, Bondarenko (Bohdan, Ukraine) and Barshim have approached. Not so much with the same frequency as they did in 2015. However, because of the frequency of jumping 2.40 or close to that and their youth, if I had to decide a name that could break my mark, it would be Barshim," said Sotomayor.
And it is that the jumper of Qatar, Barshim, who surprised the world by making a great mark in 2014 in Belgium (2.43) which had stood for 22 years. From that date, experts had predicted the fall of Sotomayor's record, but then in 2015 Barshim jumped 2.41, that was the last time he was at 2.40.
"Every morning that I wake up and see that I still have the mark is a gift from God," confessed Sotomayor.
IAAF World Athlete of the Year 2017 Barshim, who is now focused on the World Championships to be held in Birmingham, UK, in March, is currently warming up participating in some meets in Europe.
He will be seen again in action in Trincec, Czech Republic on February 11
Barshim will also be among the world's best talent on show at the 2018 AIT International Grand Prix at Athlone, Ireland on February 21.
He will be back to compete at the fifth edition of the Grand Prix. Barshim stole the limelight at this event in 2015 when he broke the Asian indoor record with a jump of 2.41m.
