Yelena Isinbayeva qualified for the pole vault final at the world indoor championships on her last attempt on Friday.
Only months after she was eliminated from the world outdoor championships for failing to clear a height, the Olympic champion from Russia was facing the same situation when she prepared for her third and final attempt at 4.55m. This time, she made it to the final.
“Now I am looking forward to the final with the aim to win and break the world record,” Isinbayeva said.
It would be her 28th world record overall if she goes beyond 5m.
Isinbayeva was not the only champion in trouble on Friday’s opening day of the championships. Defending 60m hurdles champion Liu Xiang was also less than convincing as he qualified for the semi-finals by finishing third in his heat.
Liu has been battling injury for two years and is far from his best form. The 2004 Olympic champion crossed in 7.79 seconds, his season’s best, but only the 15th best time of the opening round.
“My tendon is sore. I feel like I have no energy, no power in it,” Liu said through a translator. “My target is only to get into the final. It’s impossible for me to get the medal.”
Isinbayeva has no such injury worries — only the ghosts of Berlin threatened to show up again.
Isinbayeva lost her world championship title in the German capital in August when she failed to clear a height, despite being the overwhelming favorite as the two-time defending champion.
Indoors, she is a three-time defending champion, world record holder and unbeaten this season, but still she needed all her mental resilience to make it to the final.
In Berlin, she put the bar too high on her opening attempt and paid the price. Despite repeating time and again she had learned her lesson, she again started jumping when everybody else had already finished.
Usually she thrives when all eyes are on her only. This time, she said she was troubled by equipment problems with the bar which forced her to interrupt her preparations two times before her first attempt.
“So I had to wait 30 more minutes,” Isinbayeva said.
“So, of course, it’s difficult to wait, wait all the time,” she said.
Although Isinbayeva avoided an upset, Friday’s qualifying did claim some victims.
Panama’s Olympic long jump champion Irving Saladino was eliminated with a jump of 7.80m, just short of the last qualifying jump of 7.88m. He blamed his poor performance on lack of training after a winter injury.
In the pole vault, European indoor champion Renaud Lavillenie, who has jumped 6.01m outdoors, failed three times to clear 5.60m, but Olympic champion Steve Hooker only needed one jump to qualify for the final.
“It’s disappointing for Renaud, but there are very big things ahead for him,” Hooker said of the 23-year-old Frenchman.
“I’m disappointed I won’t be jumping against him in the final,” he said.
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