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Reports indicate Isinbayeva will skip the entire 2009 Indoor season: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6922&start=216#p117548

I think this sounds like a great opportunity for Jenn Stuczynski to break the indoor world record (hopefully multiple times!) and get some positive publicty and earn extra money

Jenn cut her outdoor season pretty short after the Olympics while Isinbayeva competed late into the summer. Rick Suhr has always been a big indoors guy and has always been one to take advantage of early indoor season meets. If Jenn is healthy and ready to go, I think it could be an exciting indoor season for the Americans!

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Reports indicate Isinbayeva will skip the entire 2009 Indoor season: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=6922&start=216#p117548

I think that Isi actually will be competing indoors next February. The Russian press always makes a distinction between "official" and "commercial" competitions - where official meets are the ones when the athletes wear their national team uniforms, while at the commercial ones they wear their sponsor's unis. So I think the gist of Petrov's comments were just that she'd be passing on the Euro Indoor Champs in Torino (aka. Turin), and from Jennski's standpoint, it's a non-issue. Not being European, she wasn't gonna go up against Isi there anyway.

Nevertheless, the indoor record maybe is "soft" at the moment, and 4.96 - a 4cm PR - sure seems like it should be within Jenn's reach. I expect it would annoy the heck outta Isi, and stoke the fire under the "rivalry" story for the press.

Jenn probably ought to shoot for it in January though, since Isi always breaks the indoor record in Donetsk, which is typically the second weekend in February. I believe Bubka has only been inviting the gals since '03, but Lena's six for six. Maybe even seven for six, since I think she broke it twice on the same day back in '03.

Do you know if Jenn has any plans to go to Donetsk herself? I'd think as the Oly silver medalist and #2 all-time, she wouldn't have any trouble getting the invite, but her European forays have, thus far, seemed a little bit tentative. The WIC last year in Valencia was the first time she's ever gone over during the indoor season, right? I’m sure the cost of getting there from New York is considerably higher than the other gals’ travel expenses, so maybe it’s just not cost-effective. But I’d sure like to see her going up against the rest of the A-listers more frequently. Just beating up on the other Americans doesn't seem to carry the same weight as kicking a few Russian (and Polish, and German, and French, and Spanish, and Slovakian) butts would.

Rick's not a big fan of traveling, and there are so many local indoor meets for them. I'd guess 50/50 odds they go to Donestk. Probably depends on how well she is jumping and what they offer her to go.


Who would like to see Jenn break the world record in RENO on January 2nd?


Me!!!!

While suffering a bit of brain fade I wrote:I believe Bubka has only been inviting the gals since '03, but Lena's six for six. Maybe even seven for six, since I think she broke it twice on the same day back in '03.

Although '03 was the first year Bubka invited women to his Zvezdie Shesta meet, I don't really know anything about that first one except that only four gals competed that year. I don't even know if Isi was one of them. In 2004 there were ten women competing, and that was the year Isi broke the indoor record there twice - at 4.81 and 4.83 - because Svetlana Feofanova was still in it at the point where she cleared 4.81. When Lena cleared 4.81 first, Sveta passed to 4.83, but missed. Lena wasn't about to let her have the highest attempt of the meet though, so she jumped and cleared at 4.83 too. This, BTW, was the last time the indoor record was also the "absolute" record, as Isi's prior PR was 4.82 from Gateshead in '03. So anyway... Isi is only six for five in Donetsk.

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Who would like to see Jenn break the world record in RENO on January 2nd?

Me!!!!

I'll second that motion.

me!!!!

I'll save some time and effort...

Me!!!!!!!

rainbowgirl28 wrote:Rick's not a big fan of traveling, and there are so many local indoor meets for them. I'd guess 50/50 odds they go to Donestk. Probably depends on how well she is jumping and what they offer her to go.

I already posted this in the "Isi Updates" thread on the International forum, but there's at least a rumor now that Jenn will be in Donetsk:

12:55 08.12.2008 – Athletics
IAAF President Lamine Diak to watch Yelena Isinbaeva in the "Pole Vault Start" tournament in Donetsk
President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diak plans to visit the traditional "Pole Vault Stars" tournament on February 14th, in Donetsk, where for four years in a row Russia’s double Olympic champion Yelena Isinbaeva has set world records. The details were explained to the agency of sport information "All Sport" by the publisher of the international athletics bulletin EME NEWS, Alphons Juck.

“The upcoming tournament in Donetsk will be the 20th anniversary,” recounted Alphons Juck. “Therefore the competition’s organizer, the first vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Sergey Bubka, is putting together a solid group of competitors. In addition to the best contemporary vaulter, Yelena Isinbaeva, there will also be America’s Jennifer Stuczynski, Poland’s Anna Rogowska and Monika Pyrek, and Russia’s Yulia Golubchikova and Tatiana Polnova. Among the men we expect a repeat of the Olympic Games duel between the 2008 champion in Beijing, Australia’s Steve Hooker and silver medalist, Russia’s Yevgeny Lukyanenko. IAAF president Lamine Diak plans to personally attend the tournament.”

Alphons Juck also added that over the entire history of the "Pole Vault Stars" in Donetsk, Sergey Bubka himself set three world indoor records here (6.05, 6.11 and 6.15) and Yelena Isinbaeva six (4.81, 4.83, 4.87, 4.91, 4.93 and 4.95).

Glad to hear they are going to go head to head

I hear Jenn took a decent sized break after the Olympics, so I am guessing we will not see a new World Record in Reno.

Ran into someone from Suhr's this past weekend at a meet, they said she might not even do indoor and she def. won't leave the country for indoor... take it as you will. Someone here is mis-informed...