13th May 2013 00:31
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| Olympic champion Yelena Lashmanova will start as the overwhelming favourite for the women's title at the European Cup Race Walking in Dudince on Sunday. (Getty Images) |
On countless occasions Yelena Isinbayeva has been asked what she says to herself when she stands on the pole vault runway ready to launch herself over the bar.
She will not reveal the answer, at least not publicity. It is between her and the 'stick' that has turned her into the finest woman her event has known.
But if those are private thoughts, what remains clearly out in the open is her desire to show her greatness again.
Eleven years on from winning her first major senior medal, when she was second at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, Isinbayeva, now 30, has no desire to take a back seat.
The IAAF World Championships in her home country take place in less than three months and this Saturday in Shanghai she will begin her bid to restore her position at the top of the rankings, as once more the woman to beat.
On the world stage, Isinbayeva holds the leading 11 best heights, from the 5.06m record she set in Zurich in 2009 to the 4.92m (a mark she shares with American Jennifer Suhr) from Brussels in 2004.
And as Valentin Balakhnichyov, the President of the Russian Athletics Federation, said a few weeks ago when Isinbayeva's Shanghai place was confirmed: 'She has been training hard. She wants to come back stronger than ever.'
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THE WEEK JUST GONE
European athletes produced outstanding performances as the Diamond League season started in Doha on Friday, but it was not all about those finishing first that caught the eye. French sprinter Myriam Soumare, who was seventh in the 200m at the Olympics in London, ran superbly in Qatar to finish third behind Jamaicans Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sherone Simpson.
THE WEEK AHEAD
Dudince in Slovakia is the stage for the European Cup Race Walking on Sunday and the list of entries show the quality of the event. The numbers of athletes registered is 283 and they include, in the women's 20km, Elena Lashmanova, the Olympic champion and world record-holder.
EUROPEAN LEADERS
Pole Vault
Men
1. Konstadinos Filippidis (GRE) 5.82m, Doha
2. Malte Mohr (GER) 5.82m, Doha
3. Bjorn Otto (GER) 5.70m, Des Moines, IA
Women
1. Tori Pena (IRL) 4.45m, Chula Vista, CA
2. Natalya Bartnovskeya (RUS), 4.41m, Tempe, AZ
3. Martina Schultze (GER), 4.35m, Lynchburg, VA
BIRTHDAYS
15.05.2013 - Andy Pozzi (GBR) – promising British hurdler and a silver medallist at the 2011 European Athletics Junior Championships turns 21
17.05.2013 – Christine Ohuruogu (GBR) – the former Olympic and world 400m champion turns 29
18.05.2013 – Ivet Lalova (BUL) – the reigning European 100m champion turns 29
18.05.2013 – Lisa Stublić (CRO) – the multiple Croatian national marathon champion and national record holder turns 29
TOP TWEETS
Kelly Holmes