Story written by Eric
Russian Yelena Isinbayeva stared down the runway at the indoor meeting in Donetsk on Saturday, pushed her pole up into the air and ran down the track surface toward the pit with focus and determination to please a sell-out crowd eager to see their neighbouring star make history yet again in their small indoor meeting which legend Sergei Bubka had arranged.
Isinbayeva planted her pole and vaulted herself up very high into an indoor arena in the Ukrainian city, lifting her frame 495 centimetres into the air, over the bar and landing back down on a mat. She smiled, the crowd roared, and Isinbayeva was back at it again - in the business of setting world records and collecting bonus checks for clearing heights which have eluded other athletes in her discipline.
The Volgograd native, who now lives in Monaco, had also kept her opponents at bay for the 23rd consecutive time - the 15th indoors, with only Qatar's world record-holding steeplechaser, Saif Saaeed Shaheen, owning a longer win-streak (25 competitions).
Isinbayeva's fortunes changed in the Polish town of Bydgoszcz on Wednesday night, however, with her long-time formidable foe and country mate Svetlana Feofanova, the last person to defeat her indoors, earning the right to stand atop the medal podium in the Pedro's Cup meeting after clearing a height of 4,71m on her first attempt -- 24cm below Isinbayeva's new personal best.
Isinbayeva, who won last year's competition at 4,84m, finished tied with Poland's own Monika Pyrek for second, with both athletes clearing 4,61m, respectively. Russia's Yuliya Golubchikova also cleared 4,61m, but finished fourth on misses.
Feofanova, 27, the former indoor (4,85m) and outdoor (4,88m) world record-holder, had last defeated Isinbayeva at the Tsiklitiria Iráklio meeting outdoors (4,88m to 4,65m) on 2004-July-4, and had been winless against her rival in 26-consecutive meetings following that victory.
Isinbayeva's last indoor loss, dating back to 16 competitions, was on 2004-February-2 at Athina 2004, where Feofanova cleared 4,85m to Isinbayeva's 4,50m.
Isinbayeva, who had endured a long and drawn-out vault competition in Donetsk followed by a guest appearance at the Laureus Awards in St. Petersburg on Monday, was unable to get her feet underneath her in Bydgoszcz.
"My body was not working well after much traveling and responsibilities in the last few days," she said to reporters afterward.
"Straight from Donyetsk I was flying to St. Petersburg for The Laureus Awards and then here again. I was aware that this was risky and that I would not be in the best condition, but still was thinking something around 4.80m would be enough to win today. I thought I would make it anyway, but there was nothing in my legs.
"But it was difficult to say no to any of my commitments. In this respect I am not disappointed."
Feofanova, the 2004 Olympic silver medallist and former world indoor champion who has never finished lower than third in her four IAAF World Indoor Championship competitions, beat a who's who cast of Polish athletes as well in recording her 33rd competition over 4,70m.
Isinbayeva has cleared 4,70m 20 more times than Feofanova, her athletics brides-maid, who is not on great speaking terms with her.
Pyrek, who lost her national indoor record to Anna Rogowska -- who finished fifth -- in 2006, and Isinbayeva had never before finished tied in a competition -- though they had both no-heighted once during their competitive careers dating back to 1999.
Isinbayeva will now take some needed time to recuperate from a heavy travel and competition period once she lands in Paris this week for an upcoming competition in Aubiere, where she will attempt to start a new win-streak in five days.
Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic has now taken over Isinbayeva's spot as the female athlete with the longest win-streak, having notched her 20th-consecutive in Split last week.
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Results:
1. Svetlana Feofanova, Russia, 4,71m
2. Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia, 4,61m
2. Monika Pyrek, Poland, 4,61m
4. Yuliya Golubchikova, Russia, 4,61m
5. Anna Rogowska, Poland, 4,51m
6. Nataliya Kushch, Ukraine, 4,41m
7. Joanna Piwowarska, Poland, 4,31m
-- Fabiana Murer, Brazil, NM
-- Paulina Debska, Poland, NM
Story written by EPelle
Australian pole vaulter Tatiana Grigorieva, the 2006 Commonwealth Games silver medalist, has announced her retirement from athletics reports Eurosport (story).
Russian-born Grigorieva, 31, moved with her then-husband Viktor Chistiakov to Australia in 1997, and won a silver medal for her adopted country three years later in the 2000 Olympic Games - the same evening national hero Cathy Freeman won the 400m in stunning fashion.
Grigorieva's rise and stay at the top took a tumultuous tumble in 2004.
Grigorieva split from her husband in 2004 - a year which she also struggled to manage any decent jumps in the vault. So far reaching were her troubles that the Olympic silver medallist and 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medallist could not jump high enough in 2004 to make the Athens Olympic team.
She endured troubling hamstring injuries along with private life issues which plagued her lead-up to Athens, and she contemplated quitting pole vaulting three years ago. However, her Italian-based coach, Vitali Petrov, encouraged her to keep going.
"I found myself in a very difficult situation," she said to the Sydney Morning Herald prior to the Commonwealth Games last season.
"I had a choice to give up or do something about it. And I wasn't about to give up."
Grigorieva's woes didn't stop mounting in 2004, as she broke her finger in 2005.
However, showing great resolve to endure and turn out better on the other side, she gutted out a performance in the IAAF World Championships good enough for fifth place. Despite the injury, Grigorieva jumped 4.47m in London that season - her best vault in nearly four years.
Though Grigorieva mustered out fantastic efforts last season following her rebirth as a human and in the sport - "I died and I was reborn," she stated - last season was a difficult one for the news-making star, as after her Commonwealth Games runner-up finish, a crook broke into her home in Brisbane and stole her silver medal as well as her world championships and Olympic medals. It was later returned.
The incident "deeply touched" Grigorieva, as a group of students at a local university began making posters to track down the villian.
"Yes, I've got medals missing, but there are a lot of good things coming out of the situation - kids learning how to help and support."
Helping and supporting are endeavors which Grigorieva would like to take more time doing, states Eurosport, as she is apparently retiring to pursue her business and charity interests.
Grigorieva is the Founding Patron of the charity Gift 4 Dreams, a non-profit organisation which uses sport and healthy activity as a means to inspire disadvantaged young Australians to build healthier, happier and safer communities in Australia according to Grigorieva. She is also a charitable donator to Camp Quality, Variety Club and Kids Helpline.
A three-time Australian Championships gold medalist, Grigorieva was born on 1975-October-8 in Lenningrad, Russia and competed in the 400m hurdles in her youth, running 58,54 in St. Petersburg in 1996. She emigrated to Australia and began pole vaulting at age 21. One year later, in New York, she placed third at the 1998 Goodwill Games.
Grigorieva has five international medals to her credit, collecting a silver at the above-mentioned Goodwill Games; a bronze from the 1999 IAAF World Championships (4.45m); a silver at the 2000 Olympic Games (4.55m); gold from the 2002 Commonwealth Games (4.35m); and silver from last year's Commonwealth Games (4.35m).
Grigorieva's seasonal efforts:
- 2006 - 4.58m, Daegu, 28-September
- 2005 - 4.47m, London (CP), 22-July
- 2004 - 4.30m, Runaway Bay, 20-February
- 2003 - 4.23m, Malmö, 12-August
- 2002 - 4.46m, Salamanca, 10-July
- 2001 - 4.56m, Yokohama 15-September
- 2000 - 4.55m, Sydney 25-September
- 1999 - 4.50m, Salamanca 15-July
- 1998 - 4.35m, Brisbane 21-March
- 1997 - 3.90m, Adelaide 06-December
Grigorieva's homepage
Story written by EPelle
Australian pole vaulter Paul Burgess, who on Sunday soared to 5.91m to place second at Perth's major annual track and field meeting, claimed The West Australian ANZ Sports Star of the Year title for 2006 on Tuesday night to complete a dazzling 72-hour period of time (link).
Burgess won the award for the first time, and is only the eighth athletics recipient in the 51 year history of the annual honour voted upon by a committee of sports writers from The West Australian and members of the WA Sports Federation, an award for Western Australian sportspeople.
The annual award has been running since 1956 and is chaired by Ron Alexander, director-general of the Department of Sport and Recreation in Australia.
Fittingly, the last track and field recipient was pole vaulter Dmitri Markov (2001), whose coach, Alex Parnov, now coaches both Burgess and Steven Hooker, his training partner who also cleared 5.91m in winning the vault in Perth. 2003 IAAF world champion Giuseppe Gibilisco of Italy relocated to Perth in October to work with Parnov, and has moved into Burgess' house (link).
Parnov, who guided Markov to the IAAF 2001 World Championship (6.05m, NR), was praised by Burgess.
“Without him nothing in my career would be the same,” he said.
Shirley de la Hunty, who won three Olympic golds, a silver and three bronzes, was the first track and field athlete to pick up the honour, earning the title in 1957, the second time The West Australian ANZ Sports Star of the Year award was handed out. Herb Elliott (1958), Dixie Willis (1962), Joyce Bennett (1963), John Gilmour (1974), Dean Capobianco (1993) and Dmitri Markov (2001) are the other track and field athletes who've won the award.
Burgess' mark at the Drug Free Track and Field Classic on Sunday propelled him to the number one ranking in equalling his best of last year, when he held that distinction for much of the season until losing his position to Hooker in Stuttgart.
With a $30,000 (Australian) bonus having been offered to beat Markov's national record on Sunday, Hooker and Burgess had the bar raised to 6.06m, a height which neither was able to successfully manage. Hooker won the event on countback and fewer misses.
World record holder Sergey Bubka (6.14m) is the only athlete to have ever cleared that height, having done so an incredible nine times, and tied 6.05m on four other occasions.
Markov is not alone in the Australian 6-metre club, as Burgess became the second Aussie - and the 13th in the world - to enter the exclusive club his vault in Perth in 2005 — the only time the height has ever been been cleared in Australia.
Burgess’ victory in the world athletics final at Stuttgart last September earned him the biggest payday of his career after he nudged American Toby Stevenson and German Tim Lobinger on a countback at 5.82m for the $40,000 first prize. Burgess' victory was a redemption of sorts, as he had lost his position as number one Australian vaulter to Hooker at the World Cup — an event in which Burgess did not compete.
Burgess had three IAAF ranking-meet wins in 2006, taking home firsts in Osaka (5.75m), Rome (5.82m) and Stuttgart (5.82m). He twice finished second (Zürich, 5.85m and Berlin 5.91m), and had a third place finish in Athens (5.75m) to land him 1357 points, good enough for second in the yearly rankings.
Hooker had four wins in IAAF ranking meets, taking home the Commonwealth gold (5.80m), as well as wins in Helsinki (5.83m), Berlin (5.96m) and Athens (5.80m). His finished second in two other IAAF meetings, Rome (5.77m) and Zürich (5.85m) to collect 1359 points, two ahead of Burgess when the final was tallied following the close of the 2006 season.
The pair's one-two world rankings was the first for Australians had achieved the feat since 1968 when Maureen Caird and Pam Ryan (nee Kilborn) won gold and silver in the 80m hurdles at the Mexico Olympics, running 10,49(A) and 10,46(A), respectively.
Burgess cleared 5.80m in 10 athletics meetings last season. Hooker managed the feat eight times.
Burgess has had mixed international success, having won the gold medal at the 1996 IAAF World Junior Championships in Sydney (5.35m PB), and finishing third in Annecy (5.20m).
He has twice finished second at the Commonwealth Games (5.50m in 1998, and 5.70m in 2002), and has a silver medal from the 2001 East Asian Games (5.50m) to add to his championship collection. However, Burgess has yet to make it to the Olympic medal stand. The other finalists up for the West Australian ANZ Sports Star of the Year award were vaulter Kym Howe and 400m sprinter John Steffensen, Amber Bradley of rowing, Bevan George of hockey, Eagles premiership captain Chris Judd, Clayton Fredericks of equestrian eventing, Daria Joura of gymnastics, Australian middle-order batsman Michael Hussey and cyclists Peter Dawson, Ryan Bayley and Sam Hill.
For more on pole vaulting, check out Pole Vault Power.
