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When Bruce wrote to Svetlana (2 Feb: Feofanova happy to be back.):

"Hello from America, Svetlana! You established five world records, of them four were indoors. But, of course, your best result was 4.88, but in a stadium. Do you prefer to jump indoors, or is four of five only chance?" (Bruce Florman)

And she replied:

"You have a little incorrect information. I have not 5, but 11 world records, and my highest result of 4.88 I showed precisely in the stadium."

I made a mental note that I should check my files to make sure I had all of her records correctly categorized. I didn't get around to it just then, and some med stuff took me away from the computer for awhile. This week, though, Mark Butler, who does the Statistics Handbook for the World Indoor Championships, checked bases with me on Isinbayeva's world records and I found I had missed one. That renewed my resolve to sort out both Feofanova's and Isinbayeva's national records and their place in the world record progression.

That wasn't quite as simple as it might seem. For example, I was temporarily perplexed as to why Feofanova's indoor 4.64m on 11 February 2001 would have been a world record, but her Russian record 4.65 on 21 February and 4.66 on 27 February would not. The answer, when I checked, was that Stacy had intervened with world records of 4.66 and 4.70 at Pocatello on 17 February.

Eventually, I think I've sorted out the Russian records to be 14 indoor and 10 outdoor (including one tie) for Feofanova, 9 indoor and 11 outdoor for Isinbayeva. Surprise! I wouldn't have thought Svetlana to have more national records than Isi.

As for world records, I have it as 3 WR and 8 WIR for Feofanova (as she told Bruce); 13 WR and 6 WIR for Isinbayeva.

Here are the specifics of their world records. If you'd like the data in an Appleworks or Excel spreadsheet, drop me a line at <rruth@shaw.ca>.

Feofanova world records:

4.64i WR 2001-02-11 Dortmund
4.71i WIR 2002-02-03 Stuttgart
4.72i WIR 2002-02-06 Stockholm
4.73i WIR 2002-02-10 Ghent
4.74i WIR 2002-02-24 Liévin
4.75i WIR 2002-03-03 Vienna
4.76i WIR 2003-02-02 Glasgow
4.77i WIR 2003-02-21 Birmingham
4.80i WIR 2003-03-16 Birmingham
4.85i WR 2004-02-22 Athína

4.88 WR 2004-07-04 Iráklio


Isinbayeva world records:

4.81i WIR 2004-02-15 Donetsk
4.83i WR 2004-02-15 Donetsk
4.86i WR 2004-03-06 Budapest
4.87i WIR 2005-02-12 Donetsk
4.88i WIR 2005-02-18 Birmingham
4.89i WIR 2005-02-26 Liévin
4.90i WIR 2005-03-06 Madrid
4.91i WIR 2006-02-12 Donetsk

4.82 WR 2003-07-13 Gateshead
4.87 WR 2004-06-26 Gateshead
4.89 WR 2004-07-25 Birmingham
4.90 WR 2004-07-30 London
4.91 WR 2004-08-24 Athína
4.92 WR 2004-09-03 Bruxelles
4.93 WR 2005-07-05 Lausanne
4.95 WR 2005-07-16 Madrid
4.96 WR 2005-07-22 London
5.00 WR 2005-07-22 London
5.01 WR 2005-08-12 Helsinki

Roger Ruth wrote:When Bruce wrote to Svetlana (2 Feb: Feofanova happy to be back.):

"Hello from America, Svetlana! You established five world records, of them four were indoors. But, of course, your best result was 4.88, but in a stadium. Do you prefer to jump indoors, or is four of five only chance?" (Bruce Florman)

And she replied:

"You have a little incorrect information. I have not 5, but 11 world records, and my highest result of 4.88 I showed precisely in the stadium."

...<snip>...

Feofanova world records:

4.64i WR 2001-02-11 Dortmund
4.71i WIR 2002-02-03 Stuttgart
4.72i WIR 2002-02-06 Stockholm
4.73i WIR 2002-02-10 Ghent
4.74i WIR 2002-02-24 Liévin
4.75i WIR 2002-03-03 Vienna
4.76i WIR 2003-02-02 Glasgow
4.77i WIR 2003-02-21 Birmingham
4.80i WIR 2003-03-16 Birmingham
4.85i WR 2004-02-22 Athína

4.88 WR 2004-07-04 Iráklio

I obviously should have checked with you before I sent my question. I was a little uncomfortable with saying she only had five records. But I'm gonna continue sniveling that her statistics on TrackAndField.ru are missing most of the '01 and '02 indoor seasons, and even where they do have numbers for the '02 European Indoor Championship in Vienna, they're just flat wrong.

But the fundamental premise of my question was valid -- that Svetlana has set records much more frequently indoors than out. Maybe I need to revisit my translation of the rest of her answer. I thought she was saying that she doesn't particularly prefer one over the other, but maybe there was a stronger note of irony in her reply than I realized.