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http://www.iaaf.org/WCH03/news/Kind=4/newsId=22517.html

Women Pole Vault Qualification
Saturday 23 August 2003


There were no surprises in the qualifying pools of the women's Pole Vault with the Russian duo of Yelena ISINBAYEVA, Svetlana FEOFANOVA and America's Stacy DRAGILA all progressing to the Final on Monday night.



Feofanova, the former world record holder and current world number two, was all class, waiting until the bar reached the automatic qualifying height (4.40m)and clearing it with ease on her first attempt.



Isinbayeva, the new world record holder, was more cautious, going in at 4.25m, and taking an attempt at 4.35m and 4.40m also. She looked very good, soaring over all three heights on her first attempt.



Joining her Russian team-mates in the Final will be Yelena BELYAKOVA as she too cleared 4.40m. She fouled twice but went over on her third attempt, not that it would have mattered if she missed as her clearance at 4.35m would have been enough to make the top 12.



Current world and Olympic champion, Stacy Dragila, eager to make sure she didn't repeat her world indoor performance of no-heighting in the qualifying rounds, started her campaign early at 4.25m. She cleared it, then 4.35m, and 4.40m with only one hiccup on her first attempt at the automatic qualifying height.



Other notable qualifiers were the German pair of Annika BECKER, who has a best of 4.77m; Yvonne BUSCHBAUM, who has cleared 4.70m this season and Poland's Monika PYREK.



France's Marie POISSONNIER qualified for the Final also, with a first-up clearance at 4.35m.


Paris 2003 infoteam for IAAF

Qual Round Results http://www.iaaf.org/WCH03/results/gende ... index.html

USA Athlete quotes:

http://www.usatf.org/news/showRelease.a ... 8-23-3.xml

Women’s Pole Vault Qualifying

Stacy Dragila: It went great. I feel very confident. That was a lot of fun out there. To be back out there in an international competition like that with all the best in the event and to compete well was great. I’m looking forward to the final. It kind of feels like this is where I should be. I’m definitely going to look forward to the final and have everyone on one runway. That brings out the best in me.

Mary Sauer: I made it through to the finals and that’s all that matters, so it was a good day. I feel pretty good about it. This is the best I’ve felt in years so far. It’s a fast runway, good conditions, so it’s wonderful

Becky Holliday: I’m happy I didn’t no height. It’s been a long year. I’m in my second international competition so I use that as experience, so I had a good one.

Jillian Schwartz : It was rough. I felt really good to start with then I broke a pole. It was a little scary. It was the first pole I ever broke. I had a couple of good attempts at the next height, but I ended up going through poles.


Dragila photo:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athleti ... 175619.stm

SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) _ Stacy Dragila, who had won the only two previous world championships in the women's pole vault, failed to earn a medal Monday at the world meet.

Dragila, the reigning Olympic champion, failed to clear three attempts at 15 feet, 1\ inches. With three women left in the competition, the American was shut out of the medals.

Svetlana Feofanova of Russia won the gold medal, Annika Becker of Germany captured the silver and world-record holder Yelena Isinbayeva took the bronze. Dragila tied for fourth.

Complete results at

http://www.iaaf.org/WCH03/results/gende ... index.html