Lee Hup Wei Set 2.29m to become first Malaysian in IAAF World Championship finals

Malaysia' Lee Hup Wei has becomes the first Malaysian to compete in the final of the IAAF World Championships in athletics.

The 32-year-old has set a new personal best of 2.29m to place in the 5th position out of 31 athletes.

No one including the defending World champion, Mutaz Barshim of Qatar has managed a 2.31m clearance - an automatic qualification mark for the finals.

Ten other athletes have cleared 2.29m, including Hup Wei and the top 12 would advance to the final round.

Lee Hup Wei enters the final round of the IAAF World championships

For a record, Lee Hup Wei won a gold medal from the 2007 Asian championships at Amman after clearing 2.24m.

He then competed in the next two Olympics, Beijing in 2008 (2.20m)  and London in 2012 (2.16m), without advancing to the finals.

He won three gold medals at the SEA Games, in 2007 at Nakhon Ratchasima (2.19m), in 2009 at Vientiane (2.18m), and in 2011 at Palembang (2.15m).

He also competed in the recent Asian Games at Jakarta and the Commonwealth Games at Gold Coast. He set 2.20 and 2.21, respectively in these Games.

He is coached by Alex Gasparyan.

High jump qualification summary at Doha

Lee Hup Wei's progress in high jump:

2006 - 2.15    

2007 - 2.24    

2008 - 2.27   

2009 - 2.24    

2010 - 2.27   

2011 - 2.15    

2012 - 2.21    

2013 - 2.22    

2014 - 2.18    

2015 - 2.17    

2016 - 2.22    

2017 - 2.24    

2018 - 2.28    

2019 - 2.29