Lead by Yelena Isinbayeva’s(RUS) indoor debut with TWO raisings of her own indoor WR in the Pole Vault, pole vaulters and high jumpers continue to turn in the top performances this indoor season.
Isinbayeva made her debut in Donetsk memorable as she cleared 4.97m (16′ 3.5″) for her first record before vaulting over 5.00m (16′ 4.75″) for record number two. With such an auspicious debut it appears this could be quite the season for Yelena.
Speaking of quite a season, Steven Hooker (AUS) continues his domination of the indoor pole vault with his fourth win of the season with a clearance of 5.92m (19′ 5.25″) in Donetsk – a rather ho hum height for Hooker this year. With the victory in hand he next went straight to 6.16m (20′ 2.5″) to once again attempt to take the WR (6.15m) from Sergei Bubka. And while he has had closer attempts this year, his familiarity at this height may just pay off before seasons end.
In Karlsruhe Germany, the high jumping continued as Blanca Vlasic and Ariane Friedrich both cleared 2.05m (6′ 8.75″) with Friedrich beating rival Vlasic on misses. The superb mark was the second raising of Friedrich’s PB during the competition and along with Vlasic’s equaling her own indoor best made them the equal #4 all time performers in indoor history.
Another setting a year leader in the high jump was Ivan Ukhov (URS). At the Russian Championships in Moscow, Ukhov continued the weekend theme of jumping high s as he improved his own world lead with a 2.37m (7′ 9.25″) win.
We also saw a few new leaders on the straightaway as Lolo Jones(USA) improved her hurdle lead to 7.82 and David Oliver (USA) and Yevgeniy Borisov (URS) equaled the 7.45 in the hurdles previously run by Terrence Trammell. While Dwain Chambers (GBR) equaled the 60 lead with a 6.51.
Around the track, Torrin Lawrence (USA) and David Gillick (IRL) gave us new 400 leaders as both ran 46.18 in separate meets. On the women’s side, Antonina Krivoskapka (URS) improved this year’s women’s 400 best to 50.55 and Bianca Knight (USA) dropped the women’s 200 best to 22.88.
But it continues to be the jumpers and vaulters that are putting up the best marks so far in this indoor season.