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Isinbayeva, Russia's 'Chick with the Stick'
When Yelena Isinbayeva planted the pole and vaulted over a bar set at a shade under five metres in the Olympic final it was the seventh time she had pushed up the limits of the event this year.
When Yelena Isinbayeva planted the pole and vaulted over a bar set at a shade under five metres in the Olympic final it was the seventh time she had pushed up the limits of the event this year.
The 22-year-old Russian dominated the Olympic competition in only the second time it has been contested, defeating arch-rival Svetlana Feofanova on Tuesday before pursuing her personal battle with the record books.
Women were banned from pole vaulting until the mid-1990s but since its introduction the event has seen an unending pattern of progress.
With many of women's track and field world records deep frozen in the Cold War era - the 400 metres mark of East Germany's Marita Koch for example has stood for 19 years - Isinbayeva and Feofanova consistently serve up the record-chasing excitement most spectators want to see.
Try telling the enthralled crowd in the Olympic Stadium on Tuesday that Isinbayeva's 4.91 metre world record clearance should be seen in the context of a recently introduced event.
No money is paid for world records at the Olympics, but Isinbayeva earned a 50,000 dollar bonus for raising the bar to a then world record 4.86m in the World Indoor Championships in Budapest in March.
And the promoters of international meetings are responsible for rewarding her for subsequent records in Gateshead, Birmingham and Crystal Palace. Add in bonuses from her shoe company and Isinbayeva is set to become a wealthy young woman.
"A yacht is what I will buy," she said after winning the gold medal. "Or a great car. I haven't got a great car yet. But I am still waiting for my bonus so we will have to wait and see."
This ebullient and most modern of Russians cuts a fascinating contrast with Feofanova, a quieter and occasionally dour character. It is rumoured the two are not the best of friends.
Feofanova has done her share of record-setting too, posting world records five times in 2002, three times in 2003 and twice this year.
Between them, Isinbayeva and Feofanova have raised the bar by 20 centimetres in the space of two and a half years. Now both are engaged in the chase to be the first woman to clear five metres. Isinbayeva claims she has already done it in training.
"I think women can jump as high as men... but perhaps one metre lower," said the woman from Volgograd. The men's pole vault record, set by the king of the event Sergei Bubka, is 6.14m.
Stacy Dragila, the American who won the event in its Olympic debut in Sydney and coined the expression 'Chicks with Sticks' for the women vaulters, will re-double her efforts to clear the magical five-metre mark after failing to make the final in Athens.
