Yelena Isinbayeva got her preparations for world championship revenge off to a perfect start with a dominant victory in her first outdoor meet of the season.
The 29-year-old Russian star of women’s pole vaulting had not taken part in an outdoor meeting since her 4.60m victory in Daegu, Korea on September 25, 2009.
That came just weeks after no heighting in the 2009 world championships final in Berlin and rebounding to improve her world record with a 5.06m vault just days later in Zurich. On Saturday, she defied heavy rain and strong winds to clinch victory with a modest winning effort of 4.60m.
Isinbayeva, who in March returned to her first coach Evgeniy Trofimov, will continue her preparations for the August 27-September 4 world championships in Daegu, South Korea, competing at Lugano today and then in Lucerne three days later.
Her last indoor outing was in February in Donetsk, Ukraine, when she won with 4.85m, but Isinbayeva admitted she was glad to be back outdoors.
“It’s good to be back in business,” she said, quoted by the IAAF.
“I wanted to compete because I was strongly focused on this comeback. I did not want to take any risk and decided to attempt a first bar at 4.50m.
“Technically I jumped well and I felt good. The next height went equally well. At 4.70m my muscles really began to suffer from the cold and from the rain. I didn’t have enough energy left to clear that bar.
“But after all I must be happy with this result. I won the competition and I was well in control of my technique. And I got a fine reception from the Belgian crowd here. It’s good to be back in business.”
The Russian also acknowledged that the stormy weather conditions could easily have seen organisers cancel the competition, in which Germans Carolin Hingst and Kristina Gadschiew were second and third respectively with 4.60m and 4.50m.
“The former Isinbayeva would probably not have jumped in these conditions,” she said.
“I guess that I have become mentally stronger as well. Anyway, to compete in these conditions in the way I did was a gutsy display of a true champion.”