Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva is the undisputed queen of women’s pole vault and this season became the first female to go over five metres.
But the 23-year-old from Volgograd has set her targets even higher and it would not come as a massive shock were the lissom Russian to use the world championships in Helsinki as the perfect place to exploit her supreme vaulting ability to even greater heights.
”It was my dream and my goal to be the first woman over five metres. I’m so happy it’s a reality,” she said after achieving that milestone at last month’s London Grand Prix meet.
”I think I can make 5,50 metres,” Isinibayeva said, adding however that she would settle just for the world title for the time being to add to the bronze medal she won at the last worlds in Paris in 2003.
Isinbayeva, upon whom the world’s track and field governing body the IAAF awarded its prestigious title of best female athlete in 2004, is now chasing men’s pole vault legend Sergei Bubka’s total of 35 world records.
”I would like to have 36 world records. It’s my new goal,” she said.
Already dubbed the ‘Sergei Bubka of the women’s polevault’, Isinbayeva took Olympic gold in Athens last year and has recorded numerous world records since.
In Athens, the Russian dominated the Olympic competition in only the second time it has been contested, defeating arch-rival Svetlana Feofanova before pursuing her personal battle with the record books.
Women were banned from pole vaulting until the mid-1990s but since its introduction the event has seen an unending pattern of progress.
With many of women’s track and field world records deep frozen in the Cold War era — the 400m mark of East Germany’s Marita Koch for example has stood for 19 years — Isinbayeva and Feofanova consistently serve up the record-chasing excitement that spectators want to see.
No money is paid for world records at the Olympics, but Isinbayeva has earned multiple $50 000 bonuses for raising the bar at various athletics meets across the globe.
Add in bonuses from her shoe company and Isinbayeva, standing 1,74m tall and weighing 66kg, is no doubt already a wealthy young woman.
”A yacht is what I will buy,” she said after becoming Olympic champion.
”Or a great car. I haven’t got a great car yet. But I am still waiting for my bonus so we will have to wait and see.”
This ebullient and most modern of Russians cuts a fascinating contrast with Feofanova, a quieter and sometimes dour character. It is rumoured the two are not the best of friends.
Isinabyeva took her first steps in sport as an artistic gymnast at the age of five but she failed to achieve success and a sudden growth spurt when she was 15 dashed her hopes of being a serious gymnast.
Bubka, a Ukrainian who still holds the men’s record of 6,14m, indirectly had a key role in her decision to switch from gymnastics to pole vaulting.
”My coach predicted I could have a career like Bubka in the pole vault. But at that time I didn’t know who Bubka was.
”Bubka told me he thought I was great after my victory in Donetsk [in 2004]. After that I understood that I was really worth something.” – Sapa-AFP