New women's world record - 4.93

[Skyin' Brian]

Isinbayeva vaults 493 in lausanne in her outdoor opener...yawn

[roger/over]

Athletissima 2005 - Lausanne (SUI)
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Last Updated: 21:41:05 CET 05/07/2005
Official Result
Women - Pole Vault

Pos Athlete Nat Mark
1 Isinbayeva Yelena RUS 4.93
2 Dragila Stacy USA 4.60
3 Elisdóttir Thórey Edda ISL 4.40
3 Hamácková Pavla CZE 4.40
3 Pyrek Monika POL 4.40
6 Schwartz Jillian USA 4.40
7 Rogowska Anna POL 4.30
8 Ellis Dana CAN 4.30
9 Steiner April USA 4.20
10 O'Hara Tracy USA 4.20
10 Sauer Mary USA 4.20
Balakhonova Anzhela UKR NM
Grigorieva Tatiana AUS NM

[Scott Go Pre]

here are some sites that talk about Isinbayeva's record breaking performance:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... d_record_2

http://www.cnn.com/2005/SPORT/07/05/ath ... cnn_latest

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics ... htm?csp=34

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory? ... SFeeds0312

and here are some pictures after her clearance:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... 077170.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... 627536.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u ... 356521.jpg

[dafox]

Isinbayeva vaults 493 in lausanne in her outdoor opener...yawn

any video anywhere?

[Stensol]

Her jumps at 4.60 and 4.70 were even better than the WR clearance, where the swing seemed to be shorter and fasterâ€â€

[polevaultdad]

Of course she makes $$$ every time she resets the record, so a centimeter at a time is a business decision.

Bubka introduced that to the elite level.

[roger/over]

And we will never know how much higher Bubka could have gone, if he'd tried for better heights in his younger years. Have a look at his world outdoor records--

5.85 Sergey Bubka URS 1984-05-26 Bratislava
5.88 Sergey Bubka URS 1984-06-02 Paris
5.90 Sergey Bubka URS 1984-07-13 London
5.91 Thierry Vigneron FRA 1984-08-31 Rome
5.94 Sergey Bubka URS 1984-08-31 Rome
6.00 Sergey Bubka URS 1985-07-13 Paris
6.01 Sergey Bubka URS 1986-07-08 Moscow
6.03 Sergey Bubka URS 1987-06-23 Prague
6.05 Sergey Bubka URS 1988-06-09 Bratislava
6.06 Sergey Bubka URS 1988-07-10 Nice
6.07 Sergey Bubka URS 1991-05-06 Shizuoka
6.08 Sergey Bubka URS 1991-06-09 Moscow
6.09 Sergey Bubka URS 1991-07-08 Formia
6.10 Sergey Bubka URS 1991-08-05 Malmo
6.11 Sergey Bubka UKR 1992-06-13 Dijon
6.12 Sergey Bubka UKR 1992-08-30 Padova
6.13 Sergey Bubka UKR 1992-09-19 Tokyo
6.14 Sergey Bubka UKR 1994-07-31 Sestriere

After his one little surge of 1985 to put Thierry Vigneron aside for good, Bubka never again let himself improve the record by more than two centimeters at at time; more usually one centimeter.

Sergey was born on 4 December 1963. That means he set his PR of 6.14 at the age of 30. He was 20 when he first broke the world record and 21 when he first set about systematically nudging the record up to extend his financial gains. Does anyone doubt that he could have vaulted higher at the age of 25 than at the age of 30, had he tried?

Now, to connect this back to Isinbayeva: Is she capable, right now, of 5 meters? Undoubtedly, yes. Is she capable of 6.10m? Probably. Will she ever vault 5 meters? Not necessarily. Former record holder Svetlana Feofanova, scheduled to vault at Lausanne, didn't--due to a season-ending, perhaps career-ending injury. The same thing could happen to Isinbayeva five years from now or five days from now. As with Bubka, we may never know how high she really could have vaulted.

[roger/over]

One more time, then I'll shut up for awhile:

Stensol's useful post describing Isinbayeva's form in her vaults suggests he must either have been at the meet or have seen extended video coverage. Can he or someone else who saw other vaults give some explanation for the uniformly poor performances by all of the other vaulters except Yelena and Stacy? They are the sort of marks I'd usually attribute to poor vaulting conditions, but how can you set a new world record under poor conditions?

Here are how marks in this meet compare with seasonal bests for all the competitors:

Isinbayeva 4.93 (No previous mark in the 2004 outdoor season)
Dragila 4.60/4.45 in 2004
Elisdóttir 4.40/4.50 ditto
Hamácková 4.40/4.51
Pyrek 4.40/4.70
Schwartz 4.40/4.55
Rogowska 4.30/4.77
Ellis 4.30/4.50
Steiner 4.20/4.45
O'Hara 4.20/4.60
Sauer 4.20/4.45
Balakhonova NH/4.40
Grigorieva NH/4.30

Eliminate Isinbayeva, Balakhonova and Grigorieva from the calculation and the other vaulters averaged 21 cm (8") below their bests for this outdoor season. Would everyone except Dragila have choked? Doesn't seem likely: All except Schwartz, Steiner, O'Hara and Sauer has held a national record. That many national record holders shouldn't choke at the same time. ???

[SkyHigh21]

This is the sport we call pole vault. There are many meets where perfect conditions allow for terrible performances by multiple athletes. Its not fair to vaulters to wonder why they cannot jump at or above their best every meet. It comes with the territory.

[Mecham]

I think thats true.... I think if we had more people at the top breaking and setting the world record, it would most certainly be at 6.40 meters.
Think of the space race to the moon, Trying to be the first one on the moon, USA thought of so much other advancements. for example, a new type of rubber for shoes, the transistor, etc.

[jp1667]

There might be another rationale behind Isinbayeva's small increment WR's - bonus $$$. I notice Bubka did the same thing back in the 80s-90s by those small increments but he was making WR $$ besides appearence fees and other profits earned in the sport.

Since they are professional vaulters, it only makes sense for them to break the record as many times as they possibly can before retiring. Just another thought.....

[CHC04Vault]

Since they are professional vaulters, it only makes sense for them to break the record as many times as they possibly can before retiring. Just another thought.....

I totally agree with you, there is line that has been crossed though in my mind. True they are pro's, and they need a viable income for their past and present, but ALL pro's should be about their livelyhood...AND the love of their sport...AND to be the BEST you can be.