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Russian Isinbayeva improves her pole vault world record to 5.03 meters

Other News Materials 12 July 2008 03:19 (UTC +04:00)

Yelena Isinbayeva improved on her world record in the pole vault, jumping 5.03 meters at the Golden Gala meet on Friday.

The Russian cleared the record height with ease on her second attempt, nearly three years after she set the previous mark of 5.01 at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, Finland.

Isinbayeva was competing in her first outdoor meet this season, and the record stands as a sharp response before the Beijing Olympics to American pole vaulter Jenn Stuczynski, who cleared 4.90 on May 18 to move into second on the all-time list.

Isinbayeva has now set 12 world records outdoors and 10 indoors, and is the only woman ever to clear 5 meters.

Her career goal is to eclipse Sergei Bubka's mark of 35 world records.

With all of the other events at the meet long finished and the clock past 11 p.m. local time, Isinbayeva got the fans who remained involved by putting her hands together to get the crowd clapping to a beat.

She doused her hands in chalk, raised her pole high toward the sky and dashed down the runway on her way to the historic leap.

When she came down, she ran over and leaped into the arms of her new coach Vitaly Petrov, who used to coach Bubka, then draped herself in a Russian flag.

Isinbayeva trains in nearby Formia, south of Rome, and spoke to the crowd in Italian to celebrate, AP reported.

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