TOKYO: The camaraderie between Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi continued during the Olympic men’s high jump victory ceremony on Monday, a day after the pair opted to share the gold medal.
Both Barshim, 30, and the 29-year-old Tamberi cleared 2.37 metres on Sunday evening. Facing the prospect of a jump-off to decide the winner, they persuaded organisers to let them share the triumph.
Videos and pictures of the good friends clasping hands, whooping for joy and embracing each other have gone viral on social media.
After climbing on to the podium together, Barshim and Tamberi presented the gold medals to each other amid more hugs and switched places to face their flags when each national anthem was played.
“He is one of my best friends, not only on the track, but outside the track,” Barshim said on Sunday.
“We work together. This is a dream come true. It is the true spirit, the sportsman spirit, and we are here delivering this message.”
It was the first time since the 1912 Olympics that a gold medal was shared in athletics - in both pentathlon and decathlon at the Stockholm Games.
Earlier, Both Barshim, 30, and the 29-year-old Tamberi ended with jumps of 2.37 metres and had no failed attempts until they attempted to clear 2.39.
After three failures each at that height, an Olympic official first offered them a jump-off to decide the winner.
“Can we have two golds?”, Barshim asked him.
The official nodded, and the two athletes clasped hands and whooped for joy.
“I look at him, he looks at me, and we know it. We just look at each other and we know, that is it, it is done. There is no need,” Barshim said.
It was also a win-win situation for the Italian, who broke his ankle days before the Rio Games in 2016.
“After my injuries I just wanted to come back, but now I have this gold, it’s incredible,” he said. “I dreamed of this so many times.
“I was told in 2016 just before Rio there was a risk I wouldn’t be able to compete any more. It’s been a long journey.”
Maksim Nedasekau of Belarus, who also cleared 2.37, took the bronze on countback.
Barshim won bronze, later upgraded to silver, at the London 2012 Games He picked up another silver in Rio four years later and then won two successive world titles in 2017 and 2019.
His personal best of 2.43m is the second-highest jump of all time, behind Cuban Javier Sotomayor’s world record mark of 2.45 set in 1993.
In a high-level competition, South Korean Woo Sang-hyeok and Australian Brandon Starc, the younger brother of cricketer Mitchell, both cleared 2.35 to finish fourth and fifth. — Reuters
We work together. This is a dream come true. It is the true spirit, the sportsman spirit, and we are here delivering this message
Mutaz Essa BarshimQatar high jumper
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