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Another record for Keisa Monterola in Venezuela
Tuesday 21 June 2005
Seventeen year-old Keisa Monterola, from Caracas, once again improved the Central American, South American Junior and South American Youth records in the Pole Vault, while jumping 4.25 metres at the National U-18 Championships in San Carlos, this Saturday, 18 June.

Monterola opend at 4m with a second attempt clearance, and then followed with 2 first chance tries at 4.15 and 4.25.
Then she had 3 misses at 4.32m in an aim the 4.31m World Youth Best of Germany’s Monika Götz, set in Troisdorf on 9 May 1998.

Monterola, born on 28 February 1988, has now improved records 3 times in 2005, and her previous CAC record and National record of 4.22m had been set in Barquisimeto on 4 June.

With these performances, Monterola is one of several hopes of medals for South America, at the upcoming IAAF World Youth Championships in Marrakesh.

I got this picture in an email a few weeks ago

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Monterola - The great Venezuelan hope
Saturday 9 July 2005
Monterola - The great Venezuelan hope

Since the days of Asnoldo Devonish, Venezuela has been waiting to produce a great athletics talent. At the Olympic Games of Helsinki 1952, Devonish won the first Olympic medal for the South American nation, a Triple Jump bronze with a 15.52m jump, and now, more than 50 years later, a youngster named Keisa Monterola could deliver a similar performance at the 2005 IAAF/Maroc Telecom World Youth Championships in Marrakesh.

Slowly but surely, Monterola has been climbing higher and higher with her pole, to finally arrive in Morocco with the World’s youth best performance of the season shared with Greece’s Ekateríni Stefanídi, a 4.25 meters vault obtained in San Carlos de Cojedes on 18 June.

Monterola began her athletics career in 2002 at the age of 14, and finished that season with a 3.55m performance.

By 2004 she had already set the national record with a 3.90m jump, and that year she took the South Youth American title in Guayaquil.

Yet, the biggest breakthrough happened this season when she first climbed over 4 metres, setting 3 records after that. 4.20m on 28 May (at Maracaibo), 4.22m on 4 June (at Barquisimeto) and finally 4.25 in San Carlos, a National Record, a South American Junior and Youth record, and also a CAC absolute record.

That consistency of performances has given her that status of medal candidate for Marrakesh, and this is the way Monterola reflects about her career.

“My first contact with sports was through Gymnastics, which I practiced for 7 years. My actual coach, Alexander Radchich, from Russia, used to watch the gymnasts, and he saw that I was becoming too tall for that sport. So he approached me and made me an offer to do pole-vaulting, and right away I realized that the change of disciplines would be the right thing to do.â€Â