Isinbayeva eyes new world record

Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva, notwithstanding a hiccup at last year's world championships, does not do things by halves having completely dominated women's pole vault for the last six years.

Reigning double Olympic and world champion, as well as three-time world indoor champion, the 27-year-old has set an incredible 27 world records, 15 outdoor and 12 indoor.

And the vaulter who says her dream is to star in a film alongside American actress Angelina Jolie has vowed not to stop there.

"This is my goal," Isinbayeva said Thursday when asked whether a further record could be on the cards during the IAAF World Indoor Championships at the Aspire dome in the Qatari capital.

"I'm very hungry for the world record.

"It's my first time in Doha and I'd like to make the competition unforgettable."

Isinbayeva has stated that her goal was to stop her career at 5.20 metres. Her current world records stand at 5.06m outdoors and 5.00m indoors, something her rivals can but dream of.

That said, the Russian showed that complacency can come back to haunt an athlete when she bombed at last year's World Athletics Championships in Berlin after failing to achieve a successful vault.

She lost to Poland's Anna Rogowska who also uncharacteristically beat her in the London Grand Prix a couple of months before Berlin. But Isinbayeva rebounded in magnificent style, breaking her own world record at the Golden League in Zurich just a week after her disaster in the German capital.

"I still use it like a huge motivation because I'll never forget that defeat," she said of her Berlin bail-out. "I learnt a good lesson. "I want to keep this defeat in my memory and always use it when I feel over-confident."

Scarily for her rivals, on whom Isinbayeva lauded some praise for having improved, the Russian revealed that she was in the form of her life. AFP