Комсомольская Правда (Komsomolskaya Pravda) wrote:06 March 2006
Isinbaeva and Feofanova will jump after the crown in Moscow
The competition between two Russian women will highlight the world championship of light athletics, which begins on 10 March
This week the royal citizens of sport will gather in Moscow in order to once again change our ideas about the limits of human possibilities. Belokamennuyu* expects an invasion of more than 700 athletes from almost 140 countries. But undoubtedly the main duel of the championship will become the elucidation of the relation between two Russian women - the arbiters of fashion in pole vaulting: Svetlana Feofanova and Yelena Isinbaeva.
Sveta missed almost one-and-a-half years because of injury and practically disappeared from public view after the Olympiad in Athens. During this time her rival, Yelena Isinbaeva, overcame the magic height of 5.01 meters and only last year established 12 world records**, each of which brought her a $50,000 prize.
During January of this year Sveta entered the vaulting sector for the first time and overcame the bar at the height of 4.64 meters. The recent duel in Birmingham between Sveta and Lena also ended with a convincing victory for Isinbaeva: 4.79 against 4.45 for Feofanova! Specialists say that Feofanova is not yet completely restored from her injury and was not ready to compete with the world record holder. However, Svetlana’s trainers assure us that she is progressing swiftly and in training is easily clearing 4.70. Let us recall that her personal record is 4.88. It is interesting that this year Svetlana has sharply changed her image, and with the new hair-do and makeup even her old rivals did not recognize her.
As far as Yelena Isinbaeva is concerned, over the latter half year she has become one of the most important sport newsmakers. Only due to breaking with her trainer Yevgeny Trofimov, moving to Monaco and the history with 6 million dollars, which she was allegedly offered by the Italians, if she agrees to represent the team "squadro adzurry".
However the attention of the fans will be riveted not only on the girls with the poles. In the triple jump sector Tatiana Lebedeva, who last year won all 6 stages of the "Golden League" and 1 million dollars in gold ingots, will trample the laws of gravity. And the Olympic 800 meter champion of Athens in 2004, Yuri Borzakovskiy, intends to earn the main prize in his crown distance.
SOMEONE ELSE’S POCKET
Champions will subdivide $2 288 000
The prize fund for the world championship is comprised of this sum.
The organizers of the Moscow championship plan to convert the arena of the "Olympic" sports complex into a forge for records. For this an ultramodern coating was purchased in the USA, with a cost of 1 million euros. 18 trucks were required in order to deliver the track to Moscow.
Experts assert that the installation of this cosmic coating will ensure a fireworks display of world records. Moreover 50 thousand dollars will be awarded for each new record.
Organizers expect 7 world records in Moscow. Here is the list of potential record breakers:
The Romanian Oprea in the triple jump;
The American men’s quartet in the 4x400 meters;
Yelena Sobolyeva in the 1500 m;
Liliya Shobukhova in the 3000 m;
The Russian women’s quartet in the 4x400 meters;
Yelena Isinbaeva in the pole vault;
Blanka Vlasic from Croatia in the high jump.
* I believe that Belokamennuyu is the area within Moscow where the Olympic sports complex is located.
** Really only 9 last year, and 11 since Athens, but who's counting.
I omitted the last couple of sections where they enumerate the prizes and the members of the Russian team, since that info is available elsewhere.
