Yelena 's Vault One Giant Leap for Womankind (Article)

[rainbowgirl28]

I thought the rest of the world didn't care about feet and inches?


http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ ... e_id=12806

Yelena's vault one giant leap for womankind

WOMEN are definitely losing the run of themselves. Once, in the good old days they'd happily stay at home and make the tea. Now they are not only capable of clearing double-deckers but, dammit, even vaulting two feet higher than the 46A bus.

I am referring of course to that petite Russian girl, Yelena Isinbayeva, who, apart from the name, is just like any young lady you'd come across on the lower deck of the 46A any day of the week.

But last week in London she became the first women to pole vault five metres. That is 16 feet five inches high and the height of the 46A is 14 feet five inches. So two feet to spare, that's if she can find a 46A handy. Ah gawd, I remember that summer in Dublin.

It wasn't until the Sydney Games in 2000 that the IOC, those noble protectors of the frail gentle sex, allowed the introduction of the pole vault for women. A giant step for womenhood, akin to Suzanne Lenglen sacrificing her corsets on the tennis courts of yore in the interests of freer movement. The women's marathon didn't get the Olympic imprimatur until 1984. Protection, of course, for the weak and the vulnerable.

As for that five metre vault, it wasn't until 1963 that a man vaulted that height for the first time. It was at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field, Philadelphia, and the man who went two feet higher than the 46A was Brian Sternberg of the USA.

Pole vaulting has altered considerably over the years, at least the pole has. In the beginning it was a bamboo pole that didn't bend and Ulick O'Connor, who broke Irish records in yon days, relates a tale of a conversation with Patrick Kavanagh when the flexible synthetic pole was introduced.

Kavanagh - in between being poetic about the stoney grey soil of Monaghan - used to write sporting pieces for the Irish Press. "O'Connor," said he one day in College Park, "it's no longer pole vaulting. It's catapulting."

The first man to clear 20 feet, which is 6.09 metres, was Sergey Bubka. The renouned Russian broke the record so many times that he can now afford to live permanently in Monte Carlo. Bubka, whose record of 20 feet 2 inches still stands, has retired and has became an influential member of the IOC, looking after current athletes.

Five-metre Yelena has now set her 17th world record in the vault which is sure some catapulting. So with financial bonuses accruing for every record she sets, she will soon be rich enough to live in Monte Carlo where, as far as I know, they have no double-deckers.

We've come a long way, haven't we - just like that 46A which replaced the carriage-and-four - since Baron de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympics, told us: "Women have but one task, that of crowning the winner with garlands."

[roger/over]

When I read, "referring of course to that petite Russian girl, Yelena Isinbayeva," in the above article, it seemed to me "petite" hardly fit, since I thought I remembered her as being a couple inches taller than Dragila. Wrong. I was thinking of Grigorieva.

For anyone who might wonder, the average height of current top ten women vaulters is 169.8 centimeters (5' 7") and the average weight is 58.22 kilos (128 lbs). Biggest of the top ten is Thórey Elísdottír at 180/67 (5'11"/147 lbs); smallest is Dana Ellis at 163/56 (5'4"/123 lbs). Yelena is almost exactly in the middle, at 170/69.

If those stats don't interest you, how about: 253 1/2 hours until the women's final at Helsinki, 278 hours until the men's final. What in the world is there to do between now and then??