DOHA: Qatar’s star high-jumper Mutaz Barshim may have failed to win a medal at the ongoing IAAF World Championships, the talented youngster brought honour for the country after being elected among the selected athletes for the IAAF Athletes’ Commission, yesterday.
Six athletes were elected in the IAAF Athletes Commission, which included the Qatari prodigy.
Also included in the list were Valerie Adams, Yelena Isinbayeva, Koji Murofushi, Christian Olsson and Andreas Thorkildsen, the IAAF announced.
All 1873 athletes accredited for IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 had the right to vote in the elections, for which there were 16 candidates and which took place during the championships between August 23 to 29 in the official team hotels.
The total number of votes cast was 1310, with valid votes being 1267.
These six athletes will begin their mandate on 1 January 2016.
Earlier on the day, Barshim finished on a disappointing fourth position in the high jump final in Beijing.
Canada’s Derek Drouin won the with a 2.34-metre clearance in a sudden-death finale.
Drouin went into a jump-off with defending champion Bogdan Bondarenko of Ukraine and China’s Zhang Guowei after all three had identical cards -- no failures up to 2.33 metres but none able to clear 2.36.
The 25-year-old Drouin, a bronze medalist at the 2013 world championships, went first and cleared it before Bondarenko and Zhang both failed, sharing the silver medal.
The only other man to clear 2.33 metres was Barshim, the world leader and pre-championship favourite, but a failure with his first attempt at 2.29m meant that he did not make it into the jump-off and finished fourth.
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