World champion Barshim heads strong field in Birmingham Diamond League

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Bengaluru, August 19: World champion Mutaz Essa Barshim will be the star attraction in the high jump event of the IAAF Birmingham Diamond League on Sunday.

The Qatari, who cleared 2.35 en route to winning gold at the recent London World Championships, will be aiming higher at Birmingham in a strong field that also includes world bronze medallist Majd Eddin Ghazal of Syria.

Barshim, whose personal best of 2.43M at the 2014 Brussels Diamond League is the second best jump in history, next only to Javier Sotomayor's long-standing record of 2.45M set in 1992 has quite often spoken about his desire to break the Cuban's feat.

"I'm not looking to do something because people are doing something now, but great things take good time to come. I will remain optimistic. You never know, but I hope so," the 26-year-old had said.

If it happens in Birmingham, which will be his first competitive outing since London, that would add anothet feather to his cap.

A year has passed by since he won a silver at Rio Olympics and Barshim took to twitter to relive the monet.

And as he arrived at Birmingham, the burning desire to scale new heights was quite eveident from this tweet.