New women's world record - 4.93

[jp1667]

Sounds like Isinbayeva going for that Bubka 35 WRs, which is a lot of accumulated $$$.

"Isinbayeva breaks own record," IAAF Lausanne (includes a photo of Isinbayeva's jump)

http://www.eurosport.com/home/pages/v4/ ... 8984.shtml

Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva lived up to a pre-meeting promise at Lausanne's Super Grand Prix on Tuesday -- setting a world record for the 14th time in her career.

The 23-year-old Olympic champion comfortably cleared 4.93 metres, adding a centimetre to the previous best mark which she herself set in Brussels last September.

"It's fantastic for me, I'm so happy," Isinbayeva told Reuters. "It's not easy, even if it looks easy."

Despite that claim, the former gymnast says she has already cleared five metres in training though she intends to take her world record attempts "one centimetre at a time."

Her long term aim is to surpass the haul of Ukrainian pole vaulter Sergey Bubka who set 35 world records during his career.

"I don't know how high I can jump," the Russian added.

"Maybe 5.10 or even 5.15. I just don't know my potential ."

Tuesday's performance earned Isinbayeva her seventh outdoor world record, with the other seven achieved at indoor meetings.

[bvpv07]

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

So...I guess that this means that a woman vaulter will finally break/reach the 5m mark in another 7 meets...

[Stensol]

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?

Well, I taped it on VHS from Eurosport's broadcast and replayed it in slo-mo several times. Unfortunately, only about 4 vaulters were shown during the broadcast, which focused mostly on track races. You know, 4-5 precious minutes at a time showing the athletes take off their warm-up clothes, maybe false start once or twice, etc. Meanwhile, the crowd would cheer in the background and you'd wonder what you had missed.

The vault and high jump competitions were mostly replays, with the top heights being live. Since little was shown of the vault, the commentators themselves didn't know much about what was going on (there's always a local video/text feed on Eurosport, so the commentators have to live with whatever the locals think is interesting at the moment), so it's impossible to know from the broadcast why there were so many sub-par performances. The only thing I can think of is swirling winds. Of course, by the time Isinbayeva started jumping, there were only three or four athletes left in the competition, and conditions could have changed for the better by then.

As far as making video available, sorry, I'll probably tape the Golden League meet from Rome tomorrow night over the Lausanne tape. Besides, I don't have the gear or the gonads to create and publish digitized video from copyrighted material.

PS - If you believe the Swedish sporting press, Isinbayeva gets a US$25,000 bonus for every world record (from Adidas?). Also, "reports from witnesses" indicate that she has actually cleared 5.10 in training, but wants to downplay that. Whatever.

[jp1667]

I think Adidas pays a special bonus (as Isinbayeva's sponsor) for the WRs but I'm pretty sure Isinbayeva is getting WR bonuses too from meet organizers.

Some IAAF meet organizers offer them so the WR is broken at their sanctioned event so they can advertise it to get better ratings for televised events.

[LHSpolevault]

jp1667 said "Some IAAF meet organizers offer them so the WR is broken at their sanctioned event so they can advertise it to get better ratings for televised events."

seems logical... but also... when does pole vault get advertised or shown on televised events?

[rainbowgirl28]

seems logical... but also... when does pole vault get advertised or shown on televised events?

Track and Field gets a lot more attention in Europe where all these meets are held.

[rainbowgirl28]

At one point video was posted on this website... http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSect=100000

I don't have the time or patience to dig it up, but maybe one of you guys can.

[ashcraftpv]

go to

http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSe ... tible=true

then in the little pane on the right, scroll down to the part that says

Athletissima: Elena Isinbaïeva allume un feu d'artifice (01:24min.)

and click on it

it should load the clip. Its all in french, so just turn the volume down

[Stensol]

Direct link: http://www.tsr.ch/tsr/index.html?siteSe ... d=5923036#

[jp1667]

It's somewhat of a market strategy in Europe since T&F is more popular there than in US. But I remember Bubka's name being associated with
several items from USC company promoted, including poles or jumping mats (advertised in Track & Field Magazine & equipment company catalogs) since they provided him with his vaulting poles & equipment. Breaking those WRs means lots of sales for any company sponsoring that athlete.

So don't be surprised if Isinbayeva is also lining up deals with a vaulting poles, clothing apparel and merchandise companies to maximize her career earnings. She could also be more selective on which meets to vault at since some IAAF meets pay more than other event organizers. Hopefully that will not be the case to keep the competition competative.

jp1667 said "Some IAAF meet organizers offer them so the WR is broken at their sanctioned event so they can advertise it to get better ratings for televised events."

seems logical... but also... when does pole vault get advertised or shown on televised events?

[Skyin' Brian]

i think i saw that she was awarded 30K for breaking this record. so, obviously a small raise of the bar for each record makes sense, but also i wouldnt look for all that many breaks before the world championships, because i think, at least in the past a WR in that meet was awarded $100K! so, obviously that is on her list of planned WR's for this season. those number's, of course just represent prizes paid by the host of the meet not bonuses from shoe contracts(adidas? i think) and other sponsors that she may have.

i suppose, even though bigger jumps in the WR progression may be more exciting, but it is nice to see a track athlete making the big bucks. can only mean good things for the sport.

[JMP8928]

good for her, make that money darlin.


ps, cant wait for stabhachsprung.com to post that video....eventually....