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ISINBAYEVA CLEARS MILESTONE FIVE METRES
Yelena Isinbayeva's historical victory with a barrier breaking five metres pole vault clearance thrilled the capacity 18,000 crowd at Friday night's Norwich Union London Grand Prix
The performance ranking on a par with Jim Hines's first sub 10-seconds 100 metres, Roger Bannister's sub-four minute mile and Sergey Bubka's six metres pole vault, was the highlight of a memorable Crystal Palace meeting.
The 23-year-old Russian's magical display, outshone even the sight of
Olympic champion Justin Gatlin flying to a UK All-Comers 100 metres record and excellent domestic victories from Tim Benjamin and Nathan Douglas.
Isinbayeva has always insisted she would win the race to become the first woman to reach the highly significant height and with her 17th world record indoors and outdoors, she achieved a burning ambition.
It was the fourth time outdoors this month the Olympic champion had raised the mark. The sequence began with a 4.93m clearance in Lausanne on July 5and a two centimetres improvement in Madrid last Sunday.
Then Isinbayeva tonight after clearing her opening heights of 4.70m and 4.80m first time, stuttered on her first world record effort at 4.96. But the second vault saw her well clear of the crossbar.
The only surprise was that Isinbayeva with a cheque for US50,000 dollars already in her possession, then decided to have the bar raised by four centimetres.
In the past with generous bonuses on offer for each improvement, she has restricted it always to one and then in Madrid, two centimetres.
But the personable former gymnast in front of her favourite London crowd and offered the enticement of another undisclosed five figure sum, achieved first time the leap of a lifetime.
"It was my dream to be the first woman to be over five metres," said
Isinbayeva affectionately hugged by Bubka, whose own world pole vault record of 6.15m has stood untroubled for 12 years.
"I can't explain my feelings, I love the run up and the stadium here," said Isinbayeva delighted the helpful weather and enthusiastic crowd offered her so much encouragement.
She admitted: "I don't know how much higher I can go - maybe 5.05m,"
suggested Isinbayeva who has regularly been clearing that height in the less stressful atmosphere of the training stadium.
"I think she's unique," said Bubka full of praise at her massive achievement after presenting her prize. "She jumps records like I did in my time.
"To jump five metres is something special and I think she can jump higher. I want her to break my record," the pole vaulting icon added.
Runner-up Anna Rogowska and equal third placed Janine Whitlock almost
unnoticed in the celebrations, raised the Polish and UK records to 4.80m and 4.47m.
Whitlock will appreciate the bonus of US10000 dollars which she received.
The pioneer of British women's pole vaulting set a 39th national record indoors or outdoors.