DAEGU: Yelena Isinbayeva has transformed the sport of women’s pole vault, but her latest underwhelming performance has seen her lose the aura she once enjoyed as out-and-out queen of the event.

The Russian, whose world record stands at 5.06m, could only manage sixth place at the world championships on Tuesday, her audacious gamesmanship backfiring when she failed to clear 4.75 and then 4.80m after coming in late.

The result adds to Isinbayeva’s poor recent record in global champs: she finished fourth at the 2010 world indoors and crashed out of the last worlds in Berlin in 2009 without registering a height.

“These moments happen in life,” acknowledged the 29-year-old Isinbayeva, who completely dominated the sport’s medal table from 2005 through to her Berlin apocalypse.

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Yelena Isinbayeva extended her string of disappointments at major events on Tuesday, going under the pole vault bar on her final attempt while five other competitors were still going for gold at the world championships.

As the Russian was packing up her bag, Fabiana Murer of Brazil added the outdoor world title to the indoor championship one year before the London Olympics. Murer set a South American record of 15 feet, 11 inches to beat Martina Strutz, who set a German record of 15-9. Svetlana Feofanova of Russia earned bronze at 15-7.

READ MORE http://www.newser.com/article/d9pedv6g0/isinbayeva-extends-string-of-disappointments-chernova-beats-ennis-in-heptathlon-at-worlds.html

DAEGU, South Korea, Aug 27 (Reuters) – World and Olympic champion Steve Hooker failed to qualify for the final of the pole vault at the world championships on Saturday.

The Australian, who has been beset by injuries and only started his season at the end of July, failed three attempts at 5.50 metres in qualifying to bring a premature end to his title defence.

Hooker had declared himself fit but out of practice for Daegu, a contrast with his position at Berlin two years ago when he cleared 5.90m with a groin strain to win gold.

The 29-year-old Hooker’s leap of 6.06m indoors in the 2009 season was the second highest in history behind retired world record holder Sergei Bubka

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Champion+Hooker+fails+qualify+pole+vault/5315278/story.html#ixzz1Wcqwuj9u

Leaving the baggage claim at Daegu International Airport, I honestly could not tell what country I had just landed in. Flags from France waved in my face as a group of Koreans chanted, “Russ-sea-a, Russ-sea-a, Russ-sea-a.” Our Korean hosts rolled out quite a warm welcome to athletes and guests for the 2011 IAAF Track and Field Championships.

In between flight arrivals, the scene at the terminal is subdued. Once a plane arrives at the gate, a swarm of Daegu locals, police officials and snap-happy photographers take over the exit gate. The big arrival of the night was Russia’s pole vault world record holder, Yelena Isinbayeva. The usually coy and private, Isinbayeva took time to pose and wave while at least 60 photographers angled to line up their shot of the star.

BRITISH pole vaulter Steve Lewis is learning from previous errors and refusing to make a prediction on how he will perform at his third World Athletics Championships in Daegu.

But the 25-year-old, who has suffered a miserable season with injuries, after breaking his left hand and injuring his knee back in February, insists there is no reason he can’t finally make his mark at a major championship.

At the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 he failed to register a height, while the best result he could muster from his 2007 and 2009 World Championship experiences was a seventh placed finish in Berlin.

Ahead of previous major championships, Lewis has talked about making finals or putting himself in with an outside chance of medalling but he intends to be no Mystic Meg this time around.

READ MORE http://www.morethanthegames.co.uk/athletics/2615328-daegu-2011-pole-vaulter-lewis-has-learned-lessons-his-prediction-skills

Chances look slim for Sweden’s 16 athletes at the IAAF World Championships 2011 which open in the South Korean city of Daegu this weekend. A  victim of the Swedish injury curse is 2011 European junior pole vault gold medalist and world junior record holder Angelica Bengtsson, whose hand injury has ruled her out of the championships.

DAEGU, Korea – Mark Hollis, an Elkhart resident, will represent the United States as part of the pole vault squad at the Outdoor World Track and Field Championships.Hollis, who coaches at Memorial High School and Notre Dame, was the USA outdoor champion in 2010 with a vault of 18 feet, 4 inches and reigned as the USA indoor champion in 2011 by clearing the same height. He placed fourth at the 2011 USA outdoor meet at 18-2. His personal best is 18-10 , set in 2008 and equaled in 2010. Daegu is 13 hours ahead of Elkhart. Hollis, 26, is scheduled to participate in the preliminaries tonight (Saturday in Korea) and then compete again the next day.

STEVE Hooker and his coach Alex Parnov have a rule regarding the pole vault champion’s preparation which they’ve followed religiously with great results over recent years.

It involves the number of practice jumps the Olympic champion is required to have on his full approach before the first competition of the season. Generally, the number is around 60, this year it was eight. That statistic sums up the plight of Hooker as he prepares to defend his world title.

“It’s well under that number of being really confident and happy about how things are going to be on the runway,” Hooker said.

“Ideally, for a good jump, you stand at the end of the runway and know exactly what’s going to happen over the next 18 steps.

“You know exactly how it’s going to feel, then you take off with confidence and have a good jump. Right now, I’m getting down the runway in the last month or so, just being cautious, being a bit unsure of what’s going on.”

READ MORE http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/more-sports/hooker-out-of-step-with-his-golden/story-e6frey6i-1226123213643

Daegu, Korea – After more than 30,000 gathered in Daegu’s Duryu Park to celebrate the city’s ‘Welcome Night’ festivities on Thursday (26), the IAAF World Championshipsbegin in earnest on Friday morning, when tens of thousands more are expected to line the streets of the city’s centre to catch a glimpse of some of the world’s finest marathoners. The Hardee and Eaton Show? Men’s Decathlon beginsThe battle for bragging rights to hold the title of the World’s Best Athlete’ also gets underway, with a fierce two-day battle expected between Americans Trey Hardee and Ashton Eaton. Hardee is the reigning champion and the winner in the season’s premiere Decathlon to date, in Gotzis, Austria, where he tallied 8689 points in late May. Eaton meanwhile is the talented rising star who at just 23 arrives as the world leader thanks to an 8729 point tally at the U.S. Championships. Boosted by his 10.26 100m speed at his best, expect Eaton to have a hefty lead after the first day read more http://daegu2011.iaaf.org/newslistdetail.aspx?id=61292

Steve Hooker is realistic about his chances. STEVE Hooker knows he is not ready. He knows he can still pull out a big jump, but can’t guarantee when. And in between clearing a high bar, the reigning Olympic and world champion knows with the form he is in at the moment, he is still just as liable to fluff it at the lower heights.Hooker is probably the best pole vaulter in the world, but he is an outsider to win the world championships in Daegu, South Korea, starting today. His preparation is not yet where it needs to be.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/athletics/poor-prep-raises-bar-for-hooker-20110826-1jeeh.html#ixzz1W9tmB5Cu

 

DAEGU, South Korea — Laying on her couch in pain just before the world championships, American pole vaulter Jenn Suhr figured for sure she was out of the competition.

Her back was mysteriously throbbing — she couldn’t even think about training — and missing another worlds with another injury looked like a real possibility.

As the USA‘s best female pole vaulter for six years, Jenn Suhr has made a career out of overcoming obstacles. But the latest obstacle in front of Suhr, 29, of Churchville, N.Y., threatened to derail her career a year before her attempt to win gold at the 2012 Olympics.After starting the season by breaking her own American indoor record at the USA Indoor Championships, Suhr started feeling weak and sick. “I was tired all the time,” she says. “It was strange. I wasn’t recovering from workouts.”She was suffering from cramping and twitching, so she took muscle relaxers so she could compete at the USA outdoor championships in late June. She missed on her first two attempts, so one more miss and she would have been out of both the national championships and the world championships…

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NCAA Division II championships in men’s and women’s cross country and indoor  and outdoor track and field will have increased student-athlete participation beginning with the 2012-13 academic year. In indoor track and field, the number of student-athletes selected to the championships will increase from 200 to 270 student-athletes per gender. In outdoor track and field, the increase is from 310 to 377 per gender. The changes were recently approved by the Division II Championships Committee and supported by the Division II Management Council, Presidents Council and Planning and Finance Committee. To finance the increases, $250,000 will come from the Division II Reserve Fund, and the rest of the support will come from the current budgets for each championship.

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Members of the Division II Men’s and Women’s Track and Field Committee recommended the increase to align access ratios with those of other individual-team sports for Division II