Isi updates ...

[BruceFlorman]

Evidently Isi was back in Volgograd this weekend, and showing her face to the public.

In Volgograd Darya Pirogova tested Yelena Isinbaeva's intellect

The presentation of the new season on STS in Volgograd was attended by the stars of the first entertainment channel - actress Anna Nevskaya (Darya Pirogova in the sitcom “Who’s master of the house”) and Sergey Mayorov, author and host of the popular program “Histories in detail”.

At the climax of the celebration Mayorov and Nevskaya arranged an intellectual competition.

“Girls, who will dare to play?” called Mayorov into the throng of beauties crowded about the scene.

A first competitor was located right away, but a second hesitated to appear.

“Girls, don’t be shy. Defend the honor of Volgograd,” encouraged Mayorov.

And then to the platform fluttered Yelena Isinbaeva herself. Here was a truly worthy representative of the glorious city. People enthusiastically began applauding, hoping that Lena would as deftly manage these tasks as she copes with the pole.
However, the very first question stumped her. But the clever Nevskaya (Pirogova) began to prompt her unscrupulously.

“Which of these composers was not a member of “Moguchiya kuchka (the Mighty Handful)”?

“Maguchiou kuchku - this was a very long time ago,” said Lena. The choices were: Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky and Du-u-u-naevskiy. The actress put significant stress on the final name and looked hopefully on Lena.

“Dunaevskiy!” Isinbaeva caught on and laughed at herself with relief.

Together the Nevskiya-Isinbaeva duet answered all the questions without yielding to their rivals.

“Oh yes, clever girls,” praised Mayorov. “We entertain for you, and you jump for us.”

“Yes, we jump for you,” Lena confirmed confidently then quickly hurried from the scene to hide in a dark corner.

Tatiana ZHIMUGALIEVA – 7 October 2006

Dang, I’m impressed that she knew the Mighty Handful was a long time ago. I wonder what the other questions were.

Edited to restore the text lost due to the old server's improper handling of non-ANSI text.

[mikepv1]

A shy one. Never would have figured.

[BruceFlorman]

Dunno if this really qualifies as an Isi update, but I just posted a translation of a three week old transcript of a Russian call-in show with Tatiana Lebedeva over on the IAAF message board. The full text is here (you'll need to scroll down a ways to get to the new transcript), but there was a pair of questions regarding Isi that I'll excerpt here.
[quote]– Good day Tatiana! This is Pavel calling from Moscow. Would you comment about the decision by the Olympic pole vault champion, Yelena Isinbaeva, to change her trainer and leave for permanent residence abroad? Are you able?

– Lena and I have been friends a long time – together almost six years on the team, and until recently lived in the same city – Volgograd. But then circumstances arose such that she decided to switch over to another trainer who lives in Italy, in the small town of Formia, and where she, naturally, was forced to move herself. That’s the entire history.

Not long ago I visited Lena, but not in Formia, where she leases a room in the hotel of the sports center, but in Monte Carlo, at the apartment she chanced to purchase. She suggested that I also move. If I had a problem with my trainer, perhaps I would think about it. But why otherwise? To me it’s good in Volgograd: a ten minute ride in the car to the stadium, a kindergarten to which Nast’ya walks, and which is visible from the window of my apartment. The school that she will attend is just down the road… But the main thing is I feel comfortable in this city.

Maybe, when I finish my career, someone will offer me interesting work in another city, and I will leave Volgograd. But thus far I don’t see any need.

– And do you think that there, in Monte Carlo, Isinbaeva is sincerely comfortable?

– This is a question for her. I think that it’s difficult for her being alone there, of course, but, on the other hand, people can get accustomed to anything.

– What are your plans now? Your season is finished?

– I was invited to compete on October 28 in Korea, but I declined, since I’m very tired: nevertheless my season will resume in May. Now my husband and I will take a trip to Amsterdam, I’ll work out some organizational issues regarding my contract with “Nikeâ€Â

[BruceFlorman]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. On Friday the following press release was posted on the Sport-Express website. I've looked around for confirmation elsewhere, but haven't found anything.

All leaders of team Russia will pass the winter season

All the leaders of team Russia will pass the upcoming winter light-athletics season, in which the Championship of Europe in Birmingham on 2-4 March 2007 will be the main start. Valery Kulichenko, state trainer and chief trainer of team Russia for light athletics, reported this to "Vyes sport", the agency of sport information. “Neither Yelena Isinbaeva nor Tatiana Lebedeva nor Yelena Slesarenko nor Olga Kotlyarova nor Tatiana Tomasheva will go to Birmingham,” stated Kulichenko. “They must pass, as they should, to recover after the stressful season in order to achieve the optimum form ahead of the summer World Championships in Osaka. And we will send young people to the winter European Championship in Birmingham. Let them compete, win, and prove that they are capable of competing on equal terms with the leaders of team Russia.”

[rainbowgirl28]

I would imagine she would jump in a couple indoor meets just to try and break her softer WR a few more times.

[BruceFlorman]

A press release in yesterday’s Sovietsky Sport:

November 3, 2006, 16:27
Yelena Isinbaeva selected for the OKR athletes’ commission

At Friday’s session of the executive council of the Olympic committee of Russia (OKR), a change in the composition of the OKR athletes’ commission was ratified. The head of the OKR press-service, Gennady Shvets, reported that Olympic weightlifting champion Dmitry Berestov, who was exposed in the use of illegal preparations, has been replaced as a member of the OKR athletes’ commission by the European, World and Olympic Games champion, and multiple pole vault world record holder, Yelena Isinbaeva, according to the “Vyes sport” agency.

“It is the position of the athletes’ commissions of the OKR and the International Olympic Committee,” stated Mr. Shvets, “that members of the commission cannot be athletes who have been exposed in the use of illegal preparations or methods. For this reason weightlifter Dmitry Berestov was removed from the commission. His place has been filled by light-athlete Yelena Isinbaeva. Isinbaeva’s candidacy was proposed by the chairwoman of the commission, triple Olympic champion in synchronized swimming, Olga Brusnikina, and the members of the OKR executive committee supported it unanimously.”

Sheesh, two weeks ago she gets appointed as an "Olympic Ambassador" for the Sochi-2014 winter games bid (viewtopic.php?t=9895#76986), and now this. When's she gonna have time for pole vaulting?

[BruceFlorman]

One of "The Year's Most Interesting Pictures" according to Sports Illustrated ...
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/0612/gallery.hidden.gems/content.22.html

[vaulter870]

i just saw that looking around at those photos earlier today

[BruceFlorman]

Isi remains a favorite of the foreign press, according to a blurb posted yesterday on the Russian Athletics Federation website.

Sympathies of foreign journalists on the side of Isinbaeva
25.12.2006

The laureates of the traditional ITAR-TASS New Year poll to determine the best athletes in the world and in Russia are the steely Swiss first "racket", Roger Federer, and Olympic champion, world record pole vaulter Yelena Isinbaeva, who received the highest grade from the foreign specialists for the second year in a row.

The poll consists of the opinions expressed by journalists from the information agencies DPA (Germany), Xinhua (China), France-press (France), APA (Austria), ANA (Greece), BTA (Bulgaria), KIA (Kenya), TT (Sweden), PAP (Poland), Prensa Latina (Cuba), Ukrinform (Ukraine), KUHN (Kuwait), MAP (Morocco), the Caucasus presses (Georgia), Kiodo Tsusin (Japan), ATS (Switzerland), Cypriot information agency, ANSA (Italy), Elta (Lithuania), Anatolian and Jihan (Turkey), Renkap (South Korea), ANP (Netherlands), CHTK (Czech Republic), and also the largest foreign publications in Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, Bulgaria, Canada, USA, and Belarus. Respondents sent ITAR-TASS their lists of the top three athletes in the world and in Russia.

The tabulation of votes was carried out traditionally according to the following scheme: for first place - 10 points, for second - 8, for third - 6. Isinbaeva (148) narrowly outdistanced Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova (140), who was second.

[BruceFlorman]

This isn't so much an "Isi Update" as a "Trofi" one, but the following blurb appeared yesterday on the Sport-Express website.

Senior trainer for the Russian women's pole vaulting team to head the men's

The senior trainer for team Russia's women pole vaulters, Yevgeny Trofimov, who trained world record holder and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva, now heads the men's national team in this light athletics discipline, reports "SE" correspondent Aleksandr Melnikov.

[BruceFlorman]

Earlier Petrov said Isi would only compete four times this winter, but according to a message she posted yesterday on her website (in the "guestbook" section) she's now planning to compete five times. Her schedule now appears to be ...

Code: Select all

02 Feb  New York   USA  Millrose Games
10 Feb  Donetsk    UKR  Zepter Polevault Stars
14 Feb  Bydgoszcz  POL  Pedros Cup
17 Feb  Birmingham GBR  Norwich Union Indoor GP
23 Feb  Paris      FRA  Bercy au Show (?)

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.iaaf.org/news/Kind=2/newsId=37275.html

Isinbayeva maps out five meet indoor campaign
Thursday 18 January 2007
Aosta, Italy – Russia’s World, Olympic and European Pole Vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva who is presently in the Italian town of Aosta for a training stint before her season’s opener at the Millrose Games in New York on 2 February, talked yesterday to Diego Sampaolo, a regular contributor to the IAAF Website.

The World record holder indoors and out is currently training under the guidance of coach Vitaliy Petrov in a group which also contains Brazil’s Fabiana Murer and Argentina’s German Chiaraviglio.




Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia
(Getty Images)

No European Indoor title campaign

Isinbayeva, who vaulted the current World Indoor record of 4.91 last year in Donetzk, Ukraine (12 Feb) and holds the overall World record at 5.01m thanks to her clearance at the outdoor World Championships in Helsinki on 12 August 2005, is concentrating more on a busy outdoor competition programme this year which will of course include a defence of her World title in Osaka, Japan.

The 24-year-old who is the reigning World and European Indoor champion has thus decided not to contest the continental indoor crown again, a championships which this winter takes place in Birmingham, England at the beginning of March, and instead has designed her indoor campaign around just five meetings.

“I am planning a shorter indoor season,â€Â