Yelena Isinbayeva winning in Oslo's Golden League meeting (© Getty Images)
World and Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva opened her 2007 summer season with a win at last night's ExxonMobil Bislett Games - IAAF Golden League 2007 - in Oslo but failed in her declared ambition of taking the World’s season’s best performance from American record holder Jenn Stuczynski.
After clearing 4.85m at her third attempt, the World record holder failed to clear a would-be world lead 4.95m.
“It’s a good beginning,” said the Monaco-resident. “It was my first competition, I jumped pretty well and I’m now already looking forward to jumping well in my next competition in Ostrava.”
The 25-year-old Russian who had explained during a pre-meeting press conference she has been working on a new jumping technique and is now using a new “swing” admitted she managed to execute only two of her attempts properly last night.
“I think my jumps at 4.75 and 4.85 were good. At 4.95 I was too tired and couldn’t do the swing right.”
“It was a bit cold out there but the crowd was very warm. Unfortunately, I had to wait almost three hours before jumping and that disturbed me a lot. I hope that in the future my rivals won’t start jumping at 4 metres.”
In fact the opening bar in yesterday’s women’s Pole Vault was 3.85 (taken by a Norwegian record holder Cathrine Larsaren) and although the competition started at 6.30pm, Isinbayeva didn’t take her first attempt - a failure - until well past 9pm.
“Of course I missed my first jump, I had been waiting for almost three hours, I wish meetings organized a warm-up for Isinbayeva and a warm-up for other athletes,” she joked.
“I actually didn’t do much when I was waiting out there, I just laid down and tried to keep warm. I didn’t think about my jumps either, in fact I was trying to remember about the last book I read!”
Isinbayeva will need much more concentration when she eventually competes against world season leader Stuczynski who cleared an American record of 4.88m a couple of weeks back in New York.
“I really wanted to jump a world’s season best,” Isinbayeva told reporters after being the last of the Golden League Jackpot contenders to leave Bislett Stadium.
“I asked for the bar to be put at 4.95m because I was very confident, I was sure I was going to clear it but in the end I was freezing and tired.”
Isinbayeva explained the day before the meeting that she had only taken about 10 full jumps with her new “swing” and that she would need at least another dozen to be in World record shape.
“This competition was like training for me. Of course I felt the adrenaline but it was more about improving the technique.”
In her own words Isinbayeva explained that the new “swing” which her coach Vitaly Petrov has introduced will help her raise her body higher during her elevation towards the bar which will consequently enable her to use harder poles and therefore clear higher bars.
“I’m still not too good at the swing yet but I’m going straight back to Formia (Italy) to work on it and improve it event further.”
“Although it was only a 4.85m jump tonight I think this was a better jump than my World indoor record in Donetsk (4.93m). Well, it felt much better to me and I hope Vitaly will say the same when we analyze it!”
In addition to winning a share of the IAAF Golden League Jackpot and retaining her World Championships gold medal in Osaka later this summer, Isinbayeva has many other goals for this year.
“My goal for this season is to set a lot of World records. After tonight, I feel confident and the hope is very much alive!”
Laura Arcoleo for the IAAF
