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Yelena Isinbayeva breaks indoor pole vault world record

Yelena Isinbayeva clears the bar in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Saturday. PHOTO: EPA

Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own indoor world record in the women's pole vault on Saturday, clearing 4.95m at the "Pole Vault Stars" event.

The 25-year-old Olympic and world champion improved on her previous record of 4.93m, set at this event last year.

At the annual event, organized by pole vault great Sergei Bubka, Isinbayeva beat the rest of the field with a jump of 4.87m. She then moved the bar to 4.94m -- a mark the Russian failed to clear at two events last season.

Isinbayeva missed two attempts at that height and then raised the bar by 1cm for her last attempt.

After her most successful season in 2005, when she set four indoor and five outdoor world records, Isinbayeva switched to a new coach and struggled through the last two seasons.

She made 14 attempts last season to improve her 5.01m world outdoor record set at the world championships in Helsinki in 2005.

It was Isinbayeva's 21st world record and 10th indoor record.

■ INDOOR 2 MILES

AP, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND

Kenenisa Bekele set a world record for the indoor 2 miles (3.2km) when he ran 8 minutes, 4.35 seconds at the Norwich Union Grand Prix on Saturday.

The Ethiopian took 0.34 off the mark of 8:04.69 run by countryman Haile Gebrselassie and set at the same National Indoor Arena in February 2003.

"It was not easy but I knew I could do it," said Bekele, who was chased for most of the race by Kenya's Paul Koech but produced a fast final lap to run away from the field.

"Koech was very close but I knew I had a fast finish in me," Bekele said.

Bekele, who has broken Gebrselassie's 2,000m and 5,000m indoor marks in Birmingham, went close to breaking his countryman's 2-mile mark last year.

"It is great here in Birmingham and it helped me with the fast time today," said the Ethiopian, who collected a check for US$30,000 for beating the mark.

Koech finished second in 8:06.48 and another Kenyan, Abraham Chebii, was a long way back third in 8:13.28.

■ TOKYO MARATHON

AP, TOKYO

Switzerland's Viktor Rothlin won the Tokyo Marathon yesterday, surging into the lead in the second half of the race.
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