High jump home win highlight for Qatar

The message American hurdler Dalilah Muhammad kept telling herself when her career was running into roadblocks: Why not me?

The message Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim kept receiving from an adoring home crowd yearning to celebrate a champion: We love you!

On a thrill-filled night at the world athletics championships yesterday, Muhammad answered her own question — again — by setting her second world record in 10 weeks, while Barshim loved everyone back by becoming a repeat world champion, winning this one on home turf.

“I’ve won a lot of gold medals but this one is home,” Barshim said. “It feels different. I just felt love.”

The late-blooming, 29-year-old Muhammad smoothed her way through the 400m hurdles in 52.16s to break by 0.04s the world record she set at the United States Championships in July.

“I didn’t even know who won the race,” Muhammad said. “I was looking to see who won, and then I noticed, when they said ‘world record,’ that I had broken it.”

How close did Muhammad come to missing out on this? Shortly after graduating from Southern California in 2012, she went to the Olympic trials and flopped. Out in the first round, she had neither a spot at the London Games nor a sponsor.

Things changed: She won her national title in 2013, then silver at the worlds. Then they changed again: She faltered in 2015 and watched those world championships from home.

“I had an epiphany one day, ‘Why not me?’” Muhammad said. Now she has an Olympic title and a world championship.

No win brought more joy throughout the stadium than Barshim’s. He had the fans out of their seats every time he succeeded. Not long after clearing the winning height of 2.37m, he was sharing a hug with the ruling emir of his country, talking about how Qatar’s first gold medal of these championships was won.

Much has been made about the heat and poor attendance, the efficacy of air-conditioned stadiums and the legitimacy of the bid process that brought not only these championships but the 2022 Fifa World Cup to a country that’s striving to raise its profile beyond that of a mere oil supplier.

For one night, at least, Barshim’s victory set all that aside. Qatar looked like a sports country and nothing could ruin that.