Anna Rogowska of Poland vaulting in the final of the women's Pole Vault in the Berlin Olmypic Stadium (© Getty Images)
Berlin, GermanyPolish pole vaulting hasn’t had it so good since the golden days of men’s Olympic champions Tadeusz Slusarski and Wladyslaw Kozakiewicz some 30 years ago. And the women’s Pole Vault victory last night of Anna Rogowska, together with Monika Pyrek’s silver, was all the better for having the element of surprise.
While the 1976 triumph of Slusarski in Montreal, and Kozakiewicz’s in Moscow, were not unexpected, Rogowska’s ranked among the sport’s great shocks. Even she could not believe, more than an hour after the competition had ended, that she had defeated the great Yelena Isinbayeva.
Isinbayeva had not lost in an international championship for six years, not since her third place finish at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. The Russian’s failure to register a height in the final was reminiscent of her no-height performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. But that was long before she had recorded the first of her 14 outdoor World records, two Olympic titles, three World Indoor Championship gold medals and two outdoor World Championship victories.
Rogowska, no previous gold medals, first; Isinbayeva, 2008 IAAF woman World Athlete of the Year and Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, nowhere.
And Rogowska’s stunned reaction? “This, for me, was a huge surprise because Yelena is the best – the only woman who has jumped higher than five metres. I would like to reiterate that she is No.1”
Not here she isn’t. Not this week.
In fact neither was she in London four weeks ago when Rogowska ended Isinbayeva’s sequence of 18 successive wins. She beat her on countback after both athletes cleared 4.68m. “Back in London I thought that it was just a bad phase, that it would go away, and that she would be back to her normal form for the World Championships,” Rogowska said. Didn’t we all?
And what about next week?
The ÅF Golden League resumes in Zurich on 28 August when the question will be asked: “Will 2009 be to Yelena Isinbayeva what 2008 was to Blanca Vlasic?” The world’s dominant woman high jumper at the time, Vlasic was beaten at the Beijing Olympics and, evidently in shock, lost a $500,000 half share of the $1m Golden League jackpot when she lost in the sixth and last meeting in Brussels.
Isinbayeva is one of four athletes still in contention for the 2009 $1m with two meetings to go, in Zurich and in Brussels. She is unbeaten in the Golden League since 2001. Asked whether she could now stop Isinbayeva in her tracks towards the big prize, Rogowska was too respectful to engage in the debate.
“My dream was to win a medal, and this is what I did today,” Rogowska said. “I am very much satisfied with that.”
Reflecting on a competition in which she needed only a modest 4.75m to win, Rogowska said: “I’m surprised at this result – that I won gold with 4.75. I had expected that we would be jumping higher and that we would need 4.80, or even more, to win.
“But I didn’t really care where I would end up in terms of winning a medal, as long as I won one and was on the podium. In the end, it was a great surprise and I’m happy about it.”
Perhaps, though, Isinbayeva had been weakened, like a boxer taking a count of nine before going down. In her penultimate competition before the World Championships, in the Golden League meeting in Paris, she had to contend with difficult wet conditions and, although she won, she took only one vault, at 4.65. In London, she cleared the bar only once in six attempts, reacting to her defeat with the comment: “I don’t know how to come to second. I’ve had some injuries which hasn’t helped my training.”
At the same time, while Isinbayeva sought not to repair the psychological damage with an interim competition before Berlin, Rogowska fuelled her confidence yet further by contesting the Polish Championships, in Bydgoszcz, clearing all heights up to 4.71m first time and conquering 4.80m at the second attempt, close to her personal best 4.83m set in 2005.
Until tonight, Rogowska’s best championship medals had been her 2006 World Indoor silver and her 2004 Olympic bronze. Hers is a career which began as a sprint hurdler but which changed direction around the time that the Pole Vault became a championship event for women. Until 1999, it had been a men only event at World Championships (and until 2000 at the Olympics).
Asked about the switch, Rogowska said that the woman sitting next to her in the medallists’ press conference had been at the root of it. “It was a long time ago,” Rogowska said. “I was 18 when I was thinking of starting jumping and I saw my first competition in Sydney (at 19) where my friend Monika Pyrek was jumping. She was in the final so I was thinking I would like to go to the Olympics and try to get some good results.”
It was at the zenith of the men’s Pole Vault in Poland that the next generation of medallists was born. Kozakiewicz and Slusarski took gold and silver in the 1980 Olympics, the year that Pyrek entered the world, followed by Rogowska in 1981.
Rogowska’s victory in Berlin is Poland’s first by a woman at the World Championships since Wanda Panfil’s in the Marathon in 1991 and she was eager to point out that it was a team effort. Thanks, she said, to her two coaches (Leszlek Klima and husband Jacek Torlinski) and to her doctor.
And silent thanks to Isinbayeva for having a bad night.
David Powell for the IAAF
While the 1976 triumph of Slusarski in Montreal, and Kozakiewicz’s in Moscow, were not unexpected, Rogowska’s ranked among the sport’s great shocks. Even she could not believe, more than an hour after the competition had ended, that she had defeated the great Yelena Isinbayeva.
Isinbayeva had not lost in an international championship for six years, not since her third place finish at the 2003 World Championships in Paris. The Russian’s failure to register a height in the final was reminiscent of her no-height performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. But that was long before she had recorded the first of her 14 outdoor World records, two Olympic titles, three World Indoor Championship gold medals and two outdoor World Championship victories.
Rogowska, no previous gold medals, first; Isinbayeva, 2008 IAAF woman World Athlete of the Year and Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, nowhere.
And Rogowska’s stunned reaction? “This, for me, was a huge surprise because Yelena is the best – the only woman who has jumped higher than five metres. I would like to reiterate that she is No.1”
Not here she isn’t. Not this week.
In fact neither was she in London four weeks ago when Rogowska ended Isinbayeva’s sequence of 18 successive wins. She beat her on countback after both athletes cleared 4.68m. “Back in London I thought that it was just a bad phase, that it would go away, and that she would be back to her normal form for the World Championships,” Rogowska said. Didn’t we all?
And what about next week?
The ÅF Golden League resumes in Zurich on 28 August when the question will be asked: “Will 2009 be to Yelena Isinbayeva what 2008 was to Blanca Vlasic?” The world’s dominant woman high jumper at the time, Vlasic was beaten at the Beijing Olympics and, evidently in shock, lost a $500,000 half share of the $1m Golden League jackpot when she lost in the sixth and last meeting in Brussels.
Isinbayeva is one of four athletes still in contention for the 2009 $1m with two meetings to go, in Zurich and in Brussels. She is unbeaten in the Golden League since 2001. Asked whether she could now stop Isinbayeva in her tracks towards the big prize, Rogowska was too respectful to engage in the debate.
“My dream was to win a medal, and this is what I did today,” Rogowska said. “I am very much satisfied with that.”
Reflecting on a competition in which she needed only a modest 4.75m to win, Rogowska said: “I’m surprised at this result – that I won gold with 4.75. I had expected that we would be jumping higher and that we would need 4.80, or even more, to win.
“But I didn’t really care where I would end up in terms of winning a medal, as long as I won one and was on the podium. In the end, it was a great surprise and I’m happy about it.”
Perhaps, though, Isinbayeva had been weakened, like a boxer taking a count of nine before going down. In her penultimate competition before the World Championships, in the Golden League meeting in Paris, she had to contend with difficult wet conditions and, although she won, she took only one vault, at 4.65. In London, she cleared the bar only once in six attempts, reacting to her defeat with the comment: “I don’t know how to come to second. I’ve had some injuries which hasn’t helped my training.”
At the same time, while Isinbayeva sought not to repair the psychological damage with an interim competition before Berlin, Rogowska fuelled her confidence yet further by contesting the Polish Championships, in Bydgoszcz, clearing all heights up to 4.71m first time and conquering 4.80m at the second attempt, close to her personal best 4.83m set in 2005.
Until tonight, Rogowska’s best championship medals had been her 2006 World Indoor silver and her 2004 Olympic bronze. Hers is a career which began as a sprint hurdler but which changed direction around the time that the Pole Vault became a championship event for women. Until 1999, it had been a men only event at World Championships (and until 2000 at the Olympics).
Asked about the switch, Rogowska said that the woman sitting next to her in the medallists’ press conference had been at the root of it. “It was a long time ago,” Rogowska said. “I was 18 when I was thinking of starting jumping and I saw my first competition in Sydney (at 19) where my friend Monika Pyrek was jumping. She was in the final so I was thinking I would like to go to the Olympics and try to get some good results.”
It was at the zenith of the men’s Pole Vault in Poland that the next generation of medallists was born. Kozakiewicz and Slusarski took gold and silver in the 1980 Olympics, the year that Pyrek entered the world, followed by Rogowska in 1981.
Rogowska’s victory in Berlin is Poland’s first by a woman at the World Championships since Wanda Panfil’s in the Marathon in 1991 and she was eager to point out that it was a team effort. Thanks, she said, to her two coaches (Leszlek Klima and husband Jacek Torlinski) and to her doctor.
And silent thanks to Isinbayeva for having a bad night.
David Powell for the IAAF
