Woo Sang-hyuk (27, Yongin City Hall) recalled his intense battle with the ‘best in the world’ Mutaz Esa Barsim (32, Qatar) and said, “It was a great honor to compete on the same height as Barsim, whom I admired. “Even after losing the gold medal to Barshim, Woo congratulated Barshim with his trademark beaming expression. But he was even more motivated to “surpass Barshim at the Paris Olympics.” Woo cleared 2.33 meters to finish second in the men’s high jump final at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, on Thursday. Barsim’s mark was 2.35 meters. Woo is only the second athlete in history to win the men’s high jump at an Asian Games without clearing 2.33 meters. At Incheon in 2014, Zhang Guowei (CHN) cleared 2.33 meters to finish second, and Barsim was the gold medalist .Barshim is arguably the best jumper in the world. He won three consecutive World Championships (London 2017, Doha 2019, Eugene 2022), tied for first with Jean-Marco Tamberi (ITA) at Tokyo 2020, and holds the second-best all-time mark of 2.43 meters (Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 is first).Barshim has cleared 2.40 or better on 11 occasions, the most in the category .Woo Sang-hyuk has made the leap to a jumper that Barshim recognizes. The defeat brought their head-to-head record to 2-10, but beating Barshim more than once is a major accomplishment for any high jumper .But Woo wants more. “I really enjoy competing with Barsim. He brings out the best in me,” said Woo. “Today, we both cleared the first round at 2.33 meters. In fact, my strategy was to get to 2.33m and then see what happens next. We did well until 2.33 meters, but we failed in the first round of 2.35 meters, which split our positions.” “I’m disappointed with the Asian Games result, but next year is the Paris Olympics,” he said, adding, “In Paris, (Budapest world champion) Jean-Marco Tambéry and (Asian Games champion) Varshim will make me scared. Woo made his breakthrough as a world-class jumper at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, finishing fourth in 2.35m.Since then, he has won the 2022 World Indoor Championships (2.34m), finished second at the Outdoor World Championships (2.35m) and won the 2023 Diamond League Final (2.35m), emphasizing that “gold in Paris is the most important goal for me.” Woo has already cleared the Paris Olympic standard (2.33m) and has effectively qualified for the Games .The disappointment of missing out on the 카지노사이트 Asian Games gold medal was not lost on Woo as he thought of the flag he would raise in Paris.