Pole-vault queen Isinbayeva to extend world domination

Russia's pole-vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva comes into the World Athletics Championships here having suffered a slight dent to her normal sky-high confidence.

The double Olympic and defending world champion, who is on course for a share of the one-million-dollar Golden League jackpot, finished second at the recent London Grand Prix in Crystal Palace.

In the cutting edge world of high-end athletics, such a finish should be acceptable albeit undesirable for competing athletes.

But for Isinbayeva, second place on the podium behind Poland's Anna Rogowska broke an amazing six-year winning streak during which the Russian has repeatedly broken her own world record, netting hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process.

"It's unusual for me to lose and I don't know how to come second," admitted the 27-year-old Isinbayeva after the London event, in which she only cleared 4.68 metres, a whopping 37 centimetres short of her world record best of 5.05m set at last year's Beijing Olympics.

"I've had some injuries which hasn't helped with my training. Now I have to get back to training and look forward to the World Championships where I will be in my best shape."

The Russian, who also acknowledged that she had not been training at 100 percent for a month, was however confident that she could use the loss to Rogowska to her advantage.

"I'm competing all the time and it's good to have someone beat you now and again," said Isinbayeva, adding that she was aiming to increase her tally of setting 26 world records.

"Maybe I started the season a bit too early but now I feel like I've got no injury problems.

"I'm happy I lost because I feel more motivated and will concentrate more on Berlin now.

"I am still very confident. I know I can build a big gap ahead of the field like before."

On her day, Isinbayeva is unbeatable and it will take an out-of-the-box performance from one of her competitors to take the world crown from her.

More than likely, the Monaco resident will leave the likes of Rogowska battle the lesser medal placings out with Russians Svetlana Feofanova and Yuliya Golubchikova, US duo Chelsea Johnson and Stacey Dragila, Brazil's Fabiana Murer and Poland's Monika Pyrek.

AFP