Golden Gala - Isinbayeva 5.03 New World Record!!

[rainbowgirl28]

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hXOU ... gD91RV6SO0

Isinbayeva sets pole vault world record
By ANDREW DAMPF – 1 hour ago
ROME (AP) — Just when it seemed someone might challenge Yelena Isinbayeva, the Russian responded with her first pole vault world record in nearly three years.
Isinbayeva cleared 16 feet, 6 inches (5.03 meters) Friday at the Golden Gala meet, improving on her previous mark of 16-5 1/4 (5.01) set at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, Finland.
American pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski set an American record of 16 feet, 1 3/4 (4.92) at the U.S. Olympic trials this week to improve her second-place standing on the all-time list, pressuring Isinbayeva to respond before the Beijing Olympics.
"Everybody was saying 'Ah OK, Isinbayeva is finished, we have a new star,'" she said. "So today I was really angry."
Isinbayeva repeatedly had tried to clear 16-5 1/2 (5.02) over the past few seasons and decided with her new coach Vitaly Petrov that a switch to 16-6 might give her a psychological boost.
"(Vitaly) said we have to change something," Isinbayeva said. "I was ready for a world record. My goal today was to beat the world record. In Rome there are great facilities, and the crowd is fantastic; I wanted to do something for them."
Isinbayeva cleared the record height with ease on her second attempt, suggesting she is capable of much more.
"It was not even close to the bar," she said. "It's just the beginning."
Isinbayeva has worked hard to overcome the physical and psychological problems that stopped her from improving on the record since 2005. This was her first outdoor meet this year, and her first appearance altogether since winning her fourth world indoor title in Valencia, Spain, in March.
"I'm stronger now, I run faster and jump higher, but the most important thing is my mind: I'm happy, I'm quiet now, I want to jump," she said. "Before I had problems, and the pole vault was somewhere in the back of my mind."
The 26-year-old Russian has dominated the pole vault since winning the 2004 Olympic title. She has set 12 world records outdoors and 10 indoors, and is the only woman to clear 5 meters.
Her career goal is to eclipse Sergei Bubka's mark of 35 world records.
With all the other events at the meet long finished and the clock past 11 p.m. local time, Isinbayeva got the fans who remained involved by putting her hands together to get the crowd clapping to a beat.
She doused her hands in chalk, raised her pole high toward the sky and dashed down the runway. When she came down, she ran over and leaped into the arms of Petrov, who used to coach Bubka, then draped herself in a Russian flag.

[maxiverson]

By 14'7, I meant 4.45m judging by her 5.03m jump where she seemed way above her handhold. It could be a 4.60m also (15'1), but she was taking it right at the top, and I don't think many girls are able to take that big of a pole. But with Isi we never know...

[slvr1969]

Yelena Isinbaeva - ROME GL - 2008 World record - 5.03 - full

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc8q8aWS674

[BruceFlorman]

For three and a half months it's been dry as a desert, and suddenly it's like trying to drink from a fire-hose.

Here's what they posted a few hours ago on AllSport.ru...

03:55 12.07.2008 - Athletics - Third stage of the Golden League of Athletics-2008
Yelena Isinbaeva: I feel like I used to, like when I was a kid!

Flashes usually come unexpectedly. Yelena Isinbaeva waited for three long years. Since August 2005, talking about her record has been as commonplace as brushing her teeth in the morning. On July 11th, at the third stage of the Golden League in Rome, the Russian set a new record, and in that moment, the journalists finally stopped asking about it. Yelena Isinbaeva discussed what it means for her this evening, with the special correspondent of the Agency of Sport Information "All Sport".

- Lena, you appear incredibly happy!
- I am. Today, for the first time in a long while, I was pleased with my jumps. Before, I’d watch the replays on the television and think: "What horror - that technique is a nightmare!" But today, I really enjoyed every jump. I’m pleased with myself!

- Why did you decide to jump 5.03 instead of 5.02, a height that also would’ve sufficed for the record?
- For some reason I don’t get along with even numbers. Starting with 4.90, I began jumping - 4.91 - 4.93 - 4.95, then… it’s true, I cleared 4.96, but nevertheless. I made a bunch of attempts at 5.02, but none were successful. Besides, now it’s not just me who’s tried to jump it, but also the American Stuczynski. We decided it wasn’t worth repeating. Therefore, before the record jump Vitaly Afanasevich told me: "Lena, don’t just set it at 5.02, make it 5.03."

- By the way, several times over the course of the competition you and Petrov embraced. A new good-luck tradition?
- It was just the emotion; I didn’t plan it in advance. When I jumped 4.95, I was already very happy, and ran to my coach. But he said: "No, no hugging and kissing yet. I know you can jump the record today." Well, from the first jump I felt that I could too.

- Lena, but what’s changed from last year? What have you added?
- Physically, I’ve became stronger, and all the tests show it – running faster, long-jumping further. But most importantly, I think I’ve changed internally. Over the past three years everything in my life has just changed so much… It’s impossible to change course a hundred per cent and stay at the same level. I’ve been supported by my coach, my family, my boyfriend. And gradually I’ve come to believe in myself again. Before, I just couldn’t cope, and constantly had stress problems. Sometimes sport faded into the background. But now I give it the full hundred percent like before, and I’m incredibly happy. I finally feel like the old Lena Isinbaeva. Like when I was a kid (laughing).

- Didn’t it annoy you, the constant talk that you’d left Russia in vain, that your time was running out, and so forth?
- More like it made me angry. More than once I heard about "the sunset of the empire", "the end of Isinbaeva’s era". I really wanted to prove it wasn’t so. I came into today’s start with sporting fury, hungry for victory. I think now all of the subsequent records will be easier. Even if we look at today's jump, I didn’t just squeak over the bar, there was still plenty to spare. My goal is 36 world records, like Bubka. Now I’ve come another step closer.

- So, let's figure. You’re going to compete until 2013, and 14 records remain. Thus, you need to break the record nearly three times a year?
- Of course I don’t calculate and plot out such a timetable. I’m more focused on achieving results. It seems to me that as soon as I get up to heights like 5.15 - 5.20, it’ll be right around my 35th-36th record.

- How will you celebrate your success?
- Not at all. Everything will be absolutely calm, because nothing surprising happened. The world record is what we’ve been preparing for. On the contrary, I’ll try to behave calmly now, to get ready for my subsequent starts. I have three more before Beijing - in London, Stockholm and Monte Carlo. There’s less than a month left until the Olympics. We can’t relax.

I've got to admit, Donetsk aside, I wasn't encouraged by her indoor season. But Petrov said all along that it would take two years, but she'd end up better than ever. And now it looks like maybe he knows what he's talking about. Who'da thought?

I'm not sure what real translators do, but I often have to debate with myself over how much of the literal verbiage to present vs. trying to retain the overall tone. I think I may lean more heavily toward the tone than a pro would, but I feel that a casual Russian conversation should still sound like a casual conversation to American ears. But sometimes I really struggle with the more colorful Russian expressions. The phrase that I translated as "sporting fury" - по-спортивному злой (po-sportivomu zloy) - might more accurately be translated as "sports-related evil", but I just didn't think that sounded quite right. Then right after that I've got her saying: "I didn't just squeak over the bar." A literal translation of - я не облизала планку (ya ne oblizala planku) - would be: "I didn't lick the bar". But for some reason I wasn't completely comfortable with that one either.

[slvr1969]

Thanks Bruce.

I’ve been supported by my coach, my family, my boyfriend. And gradually I’ve come to believe in myself again.

Who is the boyfriend?

[BruceFlorman]

Who is the boyfriend?

I can't say, because I don't know for sure. To rip off Elvis Costello - I don't know if she's been lovin' somebody, I only know it isn't mine.

[slvr1969]

Yelena Isinbaeva - ROME GL - 2008 - 5.03 - SUMMARY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G48-EUS3Rs

[VaultPurple]

ok so what is the deal with setting a world reccord and calling it quits for a day... i think they should jump while they are hot... right standard placement and she would have had atleast another three inches, but now we have to wait for another big meet for her to PR by .01... if she went ahead and uped the wr multiple times in one day she wouldnt have to worry about injury affecting her progression or any unforseen sucramstances.

[rainbowgirl28]

ok so what is the deal with setting a world reccord and calling it quits for a day... i think they should jump while they are hot... right standard placement and she would have had atleast another three inches, but now we have to wait for another big meet for her to PR by .01... if she went ahead and uped the wr multiple times in one day she wouldnt have to worry about injury affecting her progression or any unforseen sucramstances.

$$$$$$$

[ashcraftpv]

Becca is 100% correct. She gets a hefty cash bonus everytime she breaks a world record. Bubka did the exact same thing. When there is money involved, you approach things differently.

[slvr1969]

If I was a billionaire I would have give Isi a $1 000 000 bonus for each 1 cm over 5.00m. For Friday I would have given her $4 000 000!!!

[slvr1969]

http://www.iaaf.org/GP08/news/kind=100/newsid=46079.html

Isinbayeva vs Stuczynski in Stockholm - IAAF World Athletics Tour

Stockholm, Sweden – A high flying duel between the world’s two greatest exponents of women’s pole vaulting will be seen in the night sky above the 1912 Olympic stadium in the Swedish capital on Tuesday 22 July, when Russia’s Yelena Isinbayeva and USA’s Jennifer Stuczynski meet in competition for the first time in 2008.

The much awaited athletic confrontation between the multiple World record and breaker and the American who holds the Area record, which makes her the second highest vaulter in history, will take place at the DN Galan, which is a Super Grand Prix status meeting within the IAAF World Athletics Tour.

The phenomenal Russian who set her 22nd World record when clearing with ease a bar at 5.03m in Rome on Friday (11), so improving the 5.01m global mark which she set on 9 August 2005 when winning the World title in Helsinki, Finland, is coming to DN Galan for the fourth time.

Last time Isinbayeva was in Stockholm she jumped 4.79 and received a 1-carat diamond for her Stadium record.

“Stockholm Olympic Stadium is good for the Pole Vault,” commented Isinbayeva who would love to get another diamond. “It is possible to jump very high there.”

She will face Jennifer Stuczynski who won the USA Olympic trials last week. After a new American record of 4.92m, she made two attempts at 5.02.

“It is not unlikely that for the first time in history we will see two women jump five metres,” says DN Galan's meeting director Rajne Söderberg.

Isinbayeva became the first woman over five metres on 22 July 2005 in London. Now Stuczynski has the chance to join her successfully over that bar, three years to the day in Stockholm.

Keijo Liimatainen for the IAAF