Every time he decides to jump, the athletics world goes into a frenzy.
Mutaz Essa Barshim, the high jumper from Qatar is just three centimetres away from the world record and his presence here promises to take the 17th Asian Games athletics, which begins at the Asiad Main Stadium here on Saturday, to an exciting high.
While Barshim, who lit up the IAAF Diamond League series with his hot duels with Ukrainian world champion Bohdan Bondarenko, has his eyes on the world record, the Chinese are focusing on next year’s world championship in Beijing.
The Chinese prepared for the 17th Asian Games through some quality meets in Europe and their performance here will offer an interesting peep into how they are preparing for the home Worlds.
Stars like men’s long jumper Li Jinzhe, who has the Asian record on his radar, and high hurdler Xie Wenjun are among the athletes expected to hog the limelight.
For India, which won five golds on the track at the last Asiad in Guangzhou, the field events look more promising this time.
Commonwealth Games champion Vikas Gowda, the most consistent discus thrower in the continent, is the country’s big hope for a gold but he will have to battle it out with Iranian Ehsan Hadadi, the Asian record-holder and Olympic silver medallist.
Women’s discus thrower Seema Punia and men’s triple jumper Arpinder Singh, along with the women’s mile relay team, should also be among the top guns in the fray for gold.
Vikas, who trains in the US, has fine-tuned himself well for Incheon by being a regular in the Diamond League — a stage for the planet’s best athletes — but that’s not the case with most of his countrymen.
Lack of exposure has been a big problem for Indian athletes after the 2010 Commonwealth Games and especially this year, but at Incheon, a few stars including former Asian champion Mayookha Johny do not even have their coaches.
With that sort of preparation and against Gulf countries like Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE, which virtually buys ready-made Kenyan and Ethiopian stars, life is bound to be tough for the Indians.
Sudha Singh, who will be in action in the women’s steeple chase final on Saturday, is a classic case.
The Asiad champion at Guangzhou, Sudha will have to fight it out against Bahrain’s Kenya-born world junior champion Ruth Jebet who broke the Asian record last month.
Five finals will be held on the opening day and Indians will be in action in four of them, including defending champion Preeja Sreedharan in the women’s 10,000.
