Waiting Advance To Pole Vault Final
So long as world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva succeeded in advancing to the women’s pole vault final on Wednesday, there really could not be any shocking news attached to the qualifying round.
And from that aspect, there was none.
Passing the opening three heights, the Russian patiently waited for seventy minutes after the others started jumping. Then, with 16 seconds of her one minute of allotted time remaining, she took her opening jump of the day, clearing 4.40 with at least forty centimetres to spare.
She probably thought she was done for the day.
But the decision to open at 4.40, rather than at the automatic qualifying height of 4.45, may have been a small but inconsequential bit of miscalculation on the part of the Olympic champion. When 14 of the other 29 competitors also succeeded at 4.40, additional jumping was needed to pare the field to the desired dozen finalists.
Instead of passing the next height and relying on the failure of others, Isinbayeva took charge of her own fate and jumped the automatic height of 4.45, again with much room between body and bar.
The competition, which started under a blue sky punctuated with fleecy white clouds but ended under decidedly grey heavens, found all but two of the competitors clearing a height. As a result, the eliminations were slow in coming.
After more than 55 minutes of jumping at the first two heights—4.00 and 4.15—only five of the 30 competitors had been eliminated. Nine more fell out at 4.30, but those who remained were a determined lot, as no one exited at 4.40.
Joining Isinbayeva and her teammate Tatyana Polnova at 4.45 were the two Polish vaulters, Edmonton bronze winner Monika Pyrek and the Athens bronze medallist Anna Rogowska, plus Jillian Schwartz (USA), Gao Shuying (CHN) and Carolin Hingst (GER).
Among those qualifying on a countback at 4.40 were Sydney silver medallist Tatiana Grigorieva (AUS) .
The most notable exit was that of the winner of the first two world championships, Stacy Dragila (USA), whose fate was sealed when she needed three attempts at 4.40.
