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Qatar tribune
France’s Kevin Mayer has very generously donated the kit he wore when setting the world record for the decathlon to the IAAF Heritage Collection, which is currently on public display for six months in Doha, Qatar.
Mayer, the world decathlon and world indoor heptathlon champion, set the world record with a score of 9126 at the Decastar meeting in Talence, France, in September 2018, surpassing the 9045 which USA’s Ashton Eaton had established at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015. On his way to breaking Eaton’s record, Mayer set personal bests in five events.
The kit that Mayer has donated is made up of the bodysuit which he wore in the long jump, his 1500m spikes and two bib numbers (name and ‘leader’).
The donation was recently symbolically handed over at the IAAF Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition in the City Center Doha shopping mall. The recipient of Mayer’s kit was Mubarak Al-Sulaiti, a 15-year-old Qatari athlete, who competed for Qatar at the U18 Gulf Cooperation Council Athletics Championships.
Al-Sulaiti is training to be a combined eventer at the world renowned Aspire Academy, under the watchful coaching eyes of Martin Brockman and Rudolf Sopko.
“Last September I created my own piece of global athletics history, but as is the fate of all world records it will be beaten,” said Mayer, who will return to Talence for the Decastar meeting this weekend (22-23 June). “I’m therefore really delighted that my bodysuit and spikes will be preserved so the record will not be forgotten. I hope displaying the kit in public helps to inspire young athletes around the world like Mubarak to set their ambitions high and pursue their dreams as I have done.”
Decastar, which is part of the IAAF Combined Events Challenge, was recently honoured with the award of an IAAF World Athletics Heritage Plaque.
The IAAF Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition, in which Mayer’s kit is on display, was opened on 18 April by IAAF President Sebastian Coe and Dahlan Al Hamad, IAAF Vice President and Director General of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 local organising committee. The exhibition is situated in the City Center Doha, the largest shopping mall in Qatar and will be open to the public until Monday 7 October, one day after the close of the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 (27 September to 6 October).
The IAAF Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition is kindly supported by the International Athletics Foundation, Asics and SEIKO. (IAAF)
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17/06/2019
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