Winner – Thiago Braz DA SILVA, BRA
It has been a remarkably hard competiton, but my technic was good and I improved my personal best over 25cm! However I am sure I can do it better. I train with Fabiana Murer in Formia: not only is she my mate but my idol. I’d like to meet Lavillenie too, maybe in London. I dream of competing in Rio in 2016.

Second – Ivan HORVAT, CRO
I am a little bit disappointed but I am happy because I got the silver medal.This race could be better for me,I tried to go over my personal best but I couldn’t.This season I am going to attend Crotian Senior Championship then I want to go to Olympics.I am training pole vault five years in Osijek in my hometown.Osijek is for me best place for training because in Osijek I train alone and my parents always support and help me to improve myself.I aim to go over the 5.80meters in the future and the over will be bonus for me.

Third – Shawnacy BARBER, CAN
The competion was fun actually. I could not ask for more, really enjoyed it and it was a great PR. I am originally from Toronto, have a dual citizenship : the Canadian and the US one. My coach is my father, George Barber, I have been training since I was very little, I actually like athletics and enjoy all kind of sports: I play football, swim, etc. I am looking forward to beat the world record in the future. My phrase to Lavillenie would be:I am coming there.    more

Paris, Jul 11 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva insists winning her first outdoor competition of the year at a European Athletics Outdoor Premium Meeting in France trumps clearing a relatively modest height.The 30-year-old Russian posted an unconvincing 4.75 meter jump that rattled the bar, missing her next attempts at 4.85 meters, which would have been a world-leading mark.It was still enough to beat Britain’s Holly Bleasdale and Poland’s Anna Rogowska into second and third place, respectively, at Tuesday’s meet in the French town of Sotteville les Rouen.”I’m so happy that I got the victory, that’s the most important, the good results will come later,” said Isinbayeva, who set a new indoor record of 5.01 meters in Stockholm in February, in comments to the IAAF website.Gunning for her third-successive Olympic gold in London, Isinbayeva has shortened her preparation period for the Games, citing the difficulties of maintaining peak condition for an athlete of her age over a long period of time.She has said she intends to take part in a Diamond League meet in Monaco July 20, a week before the start of the Games.  more

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Barcelona – World record holder Angelica Bengtsson took the first step to defending her Pole Vault title when the third day of the IAAF World Junior Championships began this morning on a very hot Barcelona morning.
Bengtsson aiming to match the achievement New Zealander shot putter Jacko Gill had celebrated the previous evening and repeat her victory from Moncton two years ago, had no problem in clearing the automatic qualifier for the final of 4.10m.
Along with Natalya Demidenko the Russian who finished third behind her in last year’s European Junior Championships, she only entered the contest when the bar reached the automatic qualifying height.
That proved no problem for either of them as the pair along with six other athletes clearing 4.10m, automatically clinched their places into Saturday’s final where the Swede is expected to make an assault on her World record of 4.63m.
Kira Grunberg was rewarded for her persistence when raising the Austrian record on her second attempt to 4.05m to earn a place on count-back ahead of Italy’s Sonia Malavisi and Russia’s Kristina Bondarenko.
“I am satisfied that I did not fault,” said Bengtsson. “It was a comfortable competition for me. Only the swirling wind was a problem.”   more

Sergey Bubka, the most dominant pole vaulter in history, might have expected to win gold medals at five successive Olympic Games. The story of his achieving the feat only once is a modern fable of how the best-laid schemes of mice and pole vaulters can go awry.Nothing speaks more impressively to the Ukrainian’s prowess than what he accomplished outside Olympic competition: six consecutive titles at world championships, the world record broken 35 times (17 outdoors; 18 indoors), the first man to clear 6m and still the only man to scale 6.10m (20ft).The flip side of these remarkable statistics is his dismal Olympic record, although, given that so much went wrong for him, he may regard his one triumph at the Seoul Games in 1988 as the equal of any of his feats.In 1984, Bubka set world records either side of the Games but did not compete in Los Angeles because of the Soviet boycott. In 1992 he did not start vaulting until 5.70m at which point he fluffed two attempts. He declined a third go at this height in order to regroup. With the bar set at 5.75m he changed to a softer pole because of windy conditions and was caught out when the wind suddenly died, causing him to register a third failure.Four years later in Atlanta, he pulled out before with a heel injury, and then in Sydney in 2000, with his powers starting to wane, he was eliminated from the final after three tries at 5.70m.Even in 1988 he made things difficult for himself. In the final stages he dropped down to fourth place with two failures to his name — one more and he would have finished out of the meDid dals.With the bar set at an Olympic record 5.90m, Bubka pounded down the runway, rose powerfully and cleared the bar with several centimetres to spare.He did not know it at the time but despite all his triumphs on other occasions this was probably the most precious  more