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Isinbayeva vaults and sings
After making a fortune in world record bonuses, the Russian pole vaulter ended 2004 a lot richer and as women's athlete of the year.
The Black Sea Cossacks choir backed by a full orchestra lent an exotic twist to the Brussels Golden League meeting in the week after the Athens Olympics.
To the delight of a noisy crowd who had enjoyed some splendid athletics, including two world records, the choir were joined on stage by Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who belted out an enthusiastic version of her national anthem.
Isinbayeva had set her seventh world record of the year while winning the gold medal in Athens. In Brussels she extended her mark another centimetre to 4.92 metres and picked up another $100,000 bonus.
"I'm just a poor girl from Volgograd," she disarmingly explained to reporters before the start of the Olympic Games.
The women's pole vault is still a fledgling event and Isinbayeva confessed at the season-ending world athletics final that she had already exceeded five metres in training.
After making a fortune in world record bonuses, some of which went towards buying a new car, Isinbayeva was considerably richer at year's end and indisputably the women's athlete of the year.
