Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva sent a home crowd into
raptures on Tuesday when she ended a five-year title rot with a third
World Championship gold in what may be her last career event.
Isinbayeva, 31, lit up the Luzhniki stadium when she soared 4.89 metres
on her first attempt and the American Olympic champion Jennifer Suhr and
Cubas Yarisley Silva failed to follow.
Isinbayeva sprinted to her coach Yevgeny Trofimov even before Silva had
landed after her final miss and hugged him - before missing three
attempts at a world record 5.07m.
The Russian said after qualifying that she will not retire immediately but would like to have a family and a baby.
She said she aims to return for the Beijing 2015 Worlds and Rio 2016 Worlds, but only if all goes well.
The Volgograd resident is the face of athletics along with Jamaican
sprinter Usain Bolt, and has ruled the pole vault with Olympic golds in
2004 and 2008 and world titles in 2005 and 2007, to go with a staggering
28 world records.
But she faded in recent years, taking 2010 off, returning to her
long-time coach Trofimov, finishing only sixth at the 2011 Worlds and
having to settle for bronze at the 2012 Olympics behind Suhr and Silva.
