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Qatari champion Mutaz Barshim won the bronze medal in the Men’s High Jump at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Barshim successfully cleared a height of 2.34 meters, his best performance this season, securing third place behind American Shelby McEwen, who won the silver medal with a height of 2.36 meters, giving the best performance of his career, and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr, who won the gold medal with a height of 2.36 meters.
With this achievement, Barshim became the first high jump athlete to ever win four medals across four Olympic Games, having won the gold medal at the Tokyo 2020, in addition to silver medals at Rio de Janeiro 2016 and London 2012.
Mutaz Barshim won Qatar its first medal at the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and has become the most decorated Qatari athlete in Olympic history, with a total of four medals. (QNA)
Egyptian weightlifter Sara Ahmed Samir has once again made Egypt proud, securing a silver medal in the 81kg Women’s Final at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Samir lifted a total of 268kg, marking an incredible achievement in her illustrious career and reinforcing her position as one of the sport’s leading athletes.
The 26-year-old’s performance included a snatch of 117kg and a clean and jerk of 151kg, surpassing her previous personal best of 148kg, which she set at the 2022 World Championships in Colombia.
Despite falling short of the top podium spot, Samir’s silver medal adds to her already impressive collection, which includes a bronze medal from the 2016 Rio Olympics and a gold medal from the 2022 World Championships.
The gold medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics event was claimed by Norway’s Solfrid Eila Amena Koanda, who set a new Olympic record with a total lift of 275kg, comprising 121kg in the snatch and 154kg in the clean and jerk. Ecuador’s Neisi Patricia Dájomes Barrera took home the bronze, narrowly missing out on the silver with a total lift of 267kg.
Samir’s journey in the final was marked by determination and resilience. After successfully lifting 113kg and 117kg in her first two snatch attempts, she narrowly missed out on her third attempt at 119kg. In the clean and jerk, she successfully lifted 146kg on her first attempt but was unable to complete her final lift at 155kg, which would have secured her the gold.
This silver medal represents Egypt’s second medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics, following Mohamed El-Sayed’s bronze in the men’s epee individual fencing event.
Bahrain’s Salwa Eid Naser said she had mixed emotions after claiming a silver medal in the women’s 400m on her Olympic debutdebut.
Eid Naser clocked 48.53 seconds on a wet night in Paris but was blown away by Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic who raced to gold in an Olympic record time of 48.17.
The Bahraini sprinter looked disappointed after the race but was never truly in the hunt for gold while also comfortably seeing off bronze medallist Natalia Kaczmarek of Poland who finished in 48.98.
Eid Naser has the full collection of medals – gold, silver and bronze – from World Championships but this was her first Olympics. She missed Tokyo because of a controversial ban for missed doping tests. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ban and she has made up for missed time with an Olympic medal.
But she said: “I cannot even begin to put into words what this means. I am happy and at the same time I am sad.”
Paulino, the gold medallist, said: “This is the best of my life, absolutely it is. I saw myself as very strong, I’ve worked so hard and now I have an Olympic record.
“For me this gold medal means a lot. It was the medal that I needed to complete an Olympic cycle and it is a medal that my country needed. The truth is that it was worth it because I think it will inspire many young people who are in a precarious situation. Many doors will open for them because of me.”
The Dominican entered the race as a big favourite having won gold at last year’s world championships in Budapest. However, this title, won in front of a crowd who cheered her all the way down the home stretch, will rank as the greatest of her career.
Meanwhile, Team USA’s Rai Benjamin won gold in the men’s 400m hurdles at the Stade de France as he saw off his ‘Big Three’ rivals.
The race was billed as a shoot-out between Benjamin, Norway’s Karsten Warholm and Brazil’s Alison dos Santos. And so it proved as they all grabbed a medal.
For Benjamin it was gold in 46.46secs, with Warholm (47.06) second and Dos Santos (47.26) third.
Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba came in sixth but was never in the mix for a medal.
Elsewhere, Egypt’s Ahmed Elgendy looked in fine form as he set an Olympic record points total in qualifying for the final of the men’s modern pentathlon.
Elgendy, the silver medallist from Tokyo, won his semi-final with a record tally of 1516 points.
The 24-year-old competed in fencing, riding, swimming and laser run, and topped his section with the best aggregate performance. He did struggle somewhat in the showjumping but more than made up for it elsewhere.
His compatriot Mohanad Shaban sneaked into the final. Shaban finished ninth in the second semi-final with only the top nine progressing to Saturday’s main event.
The final begins at 7:30pm UAE time on Saturday, with the climax being a laser run which starts at 9.10pm.
