Isinbayeva Set to Top Her Pole-Vault Record

Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia is considered the best female pole vaulter in history.

With 21 world records, eight straight gold medals indoor and outdoor and virtually unbeaten since the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Russian pole vaulting athlete Yelena Isinbayeva expects to break her 5.01m pole-vault world record at the upcoming Olympics.

Yelena Isinbayeva is considered the favorite at the Beijing Olympics.

 

 

Yelena Isinbayeva won the 2004 Athens Olympics Gold Medal with a new World Record (then 4.91 m). On July 22, 2005, Yelena Isinbayeva became the first female pole vaulter to clear 5.00 metres.

She has already been a 8-time major champion (Olympic, World outdoor and indoor champion and European outdoor and indoor champion). Her current world records are 5.03 m outdoors, a record Isinbayeva set at the 2008 Golden Gala in Rome and 4.95 m indoors, a record set at the Donetsk indoor meeting on 16 February 2008. The latter was Isinbayeva's 21st world record.

The Olympic, World and European women’s pole-vault champion has changed her vaulting technique several times. The closer her opponents come to beating her, the more motivated and focused she becomes:

Yelena Isinbayeva on her opponents

"Every time when I go compete I focus for the victory and I focus for the winning but the other time I’m a little bit happy that my rivals start to feel that they could do something that maybe somewhere inside they can feel that they can beat me or something because this winter I lose one time, that give me motivation also because they will push me up, they will how can I say, keep me focused, yeah? So that is great and I like this, I like to win through the tough fighting."

 

 

Yelena Isinbayeva on her weaknesses

"Yeah, yeah, yeah of course now I feel that I’m flying but I change this first part of my jump I mean it’s run up and take off but of course it’s not 100% yet change but my left hand now working more than before because for example in 2005 I jumped like in Helsinki my left hand was banging too much it was like that and without any, without any work so but now it’s more how can I say more I should push the pole with the left hand it will I would bend like that more, I would bend more the poles so in that case I can take the tougher pole, the longer pole and I can jump higher"

Russia's pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva easily retained her title, but she was unable to break her own world record at the world championships on Tuesday. Isinbayeva won with a vault of 4.80, while Czech Katerina Badurova took silver with 4.75 and Russia's Svetlana Feofanova bronze after taking an extra vault to clear the same height. (Source: WCSN, WCSN.com)

 

Russian Pole Vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva Wins Gold, Sets New World Record

Yelena Isinbayeva -- who has dominated women's pole vaulting since wining at the 2004 Athens Summer Olympics -- said she did not want to disappoint her fans by only winning the gold medal and not breaking her own world record at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

 

 

2008 Beijing Summer Olympics
Russian Pole-Vault Yelena Isinbayeva Ready to Top Her World Record at 2008 Beijing Olympics