Two-time Olympic pole vault champion and three-time IAAF World Athlete of the Year Yelena Isinbayeva from Russia announced her retirement at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on Friday (19).
Isinbayeva, 34 also won three outdoor world titles and four world indoor titles.
She set the current world record of 5.06m at the Weltklasse Zurich meeting in 2009.
Isinbayeva was also elected as a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes&rsquo; Commission on Thursday.
Competitors at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games voted for four athletes in four different sports and Isinbayeva garnered 1365 votes from the 5185 competitors who voted to finish fourth overall in the poll.
Full details of the IOC Athletes&rsquo; Commission voting can be seen <a href="https://stillmed.olympic.org/media/Document%20Library/OlympicOrg/News/2016/08/2016-08-18-Athletes-Election-Results.pdf" target="_blank">here</a>.
IAAF

Two-time Olympic pole vault champion and three-time IAAF World Athlete of the Year Yelena Isinbayeva from Russia announced her retirement at a press conference in Rio de Janeiro on Friday (19).

Yelena Isinbayeva retires 

When Yelena Isinbayeva makes her return to action in February, more than 900 days will have passed since her last competition.A lot has happened during that time, of course. After the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, having won her ninth senior global title, Isinbayeva took a break from pole vaulting and gave birth to her daughter Eva in June 2014.She delayed her return to training for another six months so that she and her husband, javelin thrower Nikita Petinov, could spend time with Eva. Isinbayeva resumed basic training in January earlier this year and her form has steadily progressed.At the end of August, she posted videos of her training sessions on her Instagram account, clearing 4.30m off an eight-step approach and 4.50m off 10 steps.&ldquo;We continue to work on the technique of the jump,&rdquo; she said at the time. &ldquo;Everything is under control.&rdquo;Earlier this month, she took a break from training for one day when her foundation organised a colourful charity 5km race in which participants get showered with powdered paint as they run around the course. The event was held with the support of Athletics for a Better World, the IAAF&rsquo;s social responsibility programme.&ldquo;By the end, we all looked like the characters from Avatar,&rdquo; joked Isinbayeva. &ldquo;I jogged around near the back; I had to run slow because I had a vaulting session planned for the following day.&rdquo;The world record-holder also outlined her tentative competition plans for 2016, her final year of competition before retiring from the sport.&ldquo;It all depends on how I feel so I haven&rsquo;t promised 100% but the plan is to start the season at the Governor Cup in Volgograd on 6 February,&rdquo; she said. &ldquo;The Russian Winter meeting in Moscow on 14 February would be next in our plan.&ldquo;I&rsquo;m also thinking about competing in Portland at the World Indoor Championships, but it all depends on my condition and readiness,&rdquo; added Isinbayeva, who hasn&rsquo;t competed indoors since the 2012 World Indoor Championships when she won her fourth gold medal in the event. &ldquo;We won&rsquo;t rush to get back because our main goal is to be ready for the Olympic Games in Rio.&ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not only the Olympic Games; I&rsquo;m also dreaming about another world record. After experiencing that feeling several times in the past, you want to do it again. That would be one of the emotional highlights of my career.&rdquo;Jon Mulkeen and RusAthletics.com for the IAAF

When Yelena Isinbayeva makes her return to action in February, more than 900 days will have passed since her last competition.

Isinbayeva’s comeback tour may pass through Portland

The six newly elected representatives of the IAAF Athletes&rsquo; Commission are as follows (listed in alphabetical order): Valerie Adams, Mutaz Essa Barshim, Yelena Isinbayeva, Koji Murofushi, Christian Olsson and Andreas Thorkildsen, the IAAF announced on Sunday (30). All 1873 athletes accredited for the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015 had the right to vote in the elections, for which there were 16 candidates and which took place during the championships between 23-29 August in the official team hotels.The total number of votes cast was 1310, with valid votes being 1267. Ballots were rejected if more or fewer than six candidates were selected.Full details of the voting can be found <a href="http://www.iaaf.org/download/download?filename=9a80ce39-a0ec-4b77-86b9-65b3183705fe.docx&amp;urlSlug=iaaf-athletes-commission-voting-details">here</a>.To be eligible for nomination by their own IAAF Member Federation as a candidate for the IAAF Athletes' Commission, athletes must have participated in at least one of the past two editions of the IAAF World Championships or in the most recent Olympic Games, or have been a competitor at this year&rsquo;s IAAF World Championships.The six will begin their mandate on 1 January 2016.IAAF

The six newly elected representatives of the IAAF Athletes’ Commission are as follows (listed in alphabetical order): Valerie Adams, Mutaz Essa Barshim, Yelena Isinbayeva, Koji Murofushi, Christian Olsson and Andreas Thorkildsen, the IAAF announced on Sunday (30). 

IAAF Athletes’ Commission election results

There have been national junior championships for athletes dating back to the 1920s, with the former Czechoslovakia having organised what is believed to be the first in 1921. But having a global event – the IAAF World Junior Championships – that puts young talent on display is a relatively recent innovation.The early and mid-1980s witnessed a period of many changes in the sport, driven by the energy and vision of the then IAAF President Primo Nebiolo, and among the new ideas to emerge was the introduction of the championships.The concept of having a major international junior championship was far from new – the first South American Junior Championships were as far back as 1959, a similar event in Europe saw the light of day in 1964 while transatlantic junior matches between the USA and USSR started in 1972 – but Nebiolo realised it was time to organise a festival for teenage talent on a truly worldwide basis.At the 34th IAAF Congress held in conjunction with the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, and just three years after he came to power, Nebiolo's brainchild was given the green light.The first edition was awarded to Athens later in the year, and the Greek federation swiftly moved into action to organise the first championships in 1986.It was a huge success, possibly bigger than anyone expected, attracting 1188 athletes from 143 countries.Medals in Athens were spread among 27 nations, with African and Asian competitors notably on the podium despite their Area Associations not having a continental junior championship at the time.The five-day event also got a fillip thanks to two world junior records: by the Soviet javelin thrower Vladimir Sasimovich (78.84m) and the US men's 4x400m relay team (3:01.90).There is no doubt, in retrospect, that those first championships clearly demonstrated that there was a real desire by the vast majority of the IAAF's members to test their top young athletes against the best of the rest of the world.It set the scene for the future of what was to become a biennial event. <div class="quote">“Those who follow our sport closely know that these championships were an important moment in our (IAAF) development,” reflected Nebiolo in 1998. </div>“It gave us an opportunity to showcase tomorrow's stars as they take their first steps to greatness. The championships give youngsters a chance to gain the valuable experience of top class competition,” he added, reiterating several of his initial reasons for establishing the IAAF World Junior Championships.Nebiolo was absolutely right in both respects. Many athletes who were later to become household names got their first gold medal on a world stage at the IAAF World Junior Championships while others now knew what it would take to get to the top.British hurdler Colin Jackson, Cuban high jumper Javier Sotomayor and East German discus thrower Ilke Wyludda are just three of the athletes that stand out from the list of winners from Athens. By contrast, the Soviet race walker Olimpiada Ivanova was a lowly 15th in the 5000m race walk but went on, in a Russian vest, to win world and European titles and set world records. Similarly, Algeria’s Hassiba Boulmerka failed to make either the 800m or 1500m final at the 1986 World Junior Championships but, six years later, would win the gold medal over the longer distance at the 1992 Olympic Games.<div class="quote">“When I consider my career, the World Junior Championships gold is one of my most memorable races," remembered Jackson in his autobiography. "I'll always remember it because it had all those ingredients that I would need later to be a champion: to come back successfully from adversity and live up to the responsibility of being a champion." </div>Every single championships since 1986 has seen more illustrious names make their mark on the sporting consciousness for the first time.During the 1990s, names such as Trinidad and Tobago’s Ato Boldon, Kenya's Moses Kiptanui and Daniel Komen, Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie and Derartu Tulu, United States' Adam Nelson, Ecuador’s Jefferson Perez, Romania's Gabriela Szabo, China's Wang Junxia and Cuba's Osleidys Menéndez were all winners at the World Junior Championships.All were to strike gold again at the IAAF World Championships later in their careers.During the 10 years from the 2000 IAAF World Junior Championships in Santiago de Chile, a ground-breaking event as it was the first time that a global stadium-based IAAF competition was staged in South America, a similar roll call can be made. Jamaica's Usain Bolt gave notice of his phenomenal talent when he won the 200m title in 2002 on home soil at the prodigious age of 15, thrilling and stunning observers in the Jamaican capital Kingston. Four years later, Kenya’s David Rudisha was one of the brightest stars of the 2006 IAAF World Junior Championships in Beijing, winning over 800m.Like Bolt, Rudisha was to become a world record-breaker and to be honoured as an IAAF Athlete of the Year before the end of the decade.Among the other men's names that leap out from the list of winners in the new millennium are the USA’s LaShawn Merritt and Kerron Clement, Ethiopia’s Ibrahim Jeylan, France’s Teddy Tamgho, Grenada’s Kirani James and Germany’s David Storl. Female athletes who made the transition from being junior champions to superstars of the sport in this period include Ethiopian distance runner Meseret Defar, Russia's pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, Australian discus thrower Dani Samuels and combined events exponents Carolina Kluft of Sweden and Russia's Tatyana Chernova.The popularity and universality of the championships has also steadily grown with more than 1500 athletes in action from 171 nations at the 2012 edition in Barcelona, the biggest ever participation figures on both counts.A number of winners in the Catalan city, notably Dominican Republic’s 400m runner Luguelin Santos, Kenyan distance runners Conseslus Kipruto and Faith Kipyegon, Trinidad and Tobago's javelin thrower Keshorn Walcott, and 800m gold medallists Nijel Amos and Ajee Wilson, from Botswana and the USA respectively, have already made a big impact at senior international championships in a short time.The question now to be asked is, who will make their mark at Oregon 2014 and put their names into the annals of athletics history?Phil Minshull for the IAAF(Some of the content in this article first appeared in the IAAF centenary book IAAF 1912-2012, 100 Years of Athletics Excellence.)

There have been national junior championships for athletes dating back to the 1920s, with the former Czechoslovakia having organised what is believed to be the first in 1921. But having a global event – the IAAF World Junior Championships – that puts young talent on display is a relatively recent innovation.

Teenage talent to the fore – a brief history of the IAAF World Junior Championships

IAAF World Athletes of the Year Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are among the nominees for the 2014 Laureus World Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards.Bolt, a three-time winner of the award and the recipient in 2013, leads the men’s nominations along with fellow double world and Olympic champion Mo Farah. Outside of athletics, the other nominees are US basketball player Lebron James, Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal, Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and German formula one driver Sebastian Vettel.If Bolt were to win, he would tie the record of four Laureus awards, currently held by Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.Double world champion sprinter Fraser-Pryce is joined by world pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, while other nominees include German footballer Nadine Angerer, US swimmer Missy Franklin, Slovenian skier Tina Maze and US tennis player Serena Williams.Isinbayeva, twice a former winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award, is also nominated in the ‘Comeback of the Year’ category, while fellow world pole vault champion Raphael Holzdeppe is in the running for the ‘Breakthrough of the Year’ award.The 15th Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during the calendar year 2013, is the premier honours event on the international sporting calendar. The winners, as voted by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, will be unveiled at a globally televised Awards Ceremony staged in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday, March 26.“I have never seen such a potentially close contest in so many categories before,” said Laureus world sports academy chairman and former 400m hurdles world record-holder Edwin Moses. “This is going to be a classic year.“There is a wonderful balance between some of the great names who have dominated sport over many years and some exciting newcomers. This is really the creme de la creme of sport and it is going to be an exciting night in Kuala Lumpur discovering which of these great athletes will receive Laureus Awards.”Laureus for the IAAF

IAAF World Athletes of the Year Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are among the nominees for the 2014 Laureus World Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year awards.

Bolt and Fraser-Pryce among Laureus nominees

Jamaica's sprint star Usain Bolt has been voted the AIPS Best Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, and the fourth time in total, following his other wins in 2008 and 2009, announced the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) on Monday (29). A panel of 470 sports journalists from 96 countries voted in this year's poll. Bolt, the IAAF World Athlete of the Year, received an overwhelming 1282 votes, 30.24% of the vote, followed by Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel on 499, and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo on 437.The women’s award, like in 2012, went to US tennis player Serena Williams, who received 915 votes. Russia’s pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva, the AIPS Best Athlete of the Year winner in 2006, 2008 and 2009, was second with 644 votes while Bolt’s compatriot and fellow IAAF World Athlete of the Year Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was third with 551.Athletics also featured in the vote for Best Press Facilities, which was split into two categories for the first time: Best One-Day Sporting Event and Best Press Facilities, Major Championship. The winner of the One-Day Sporting Event award was the UEFA Champions League Final, while the 2013 IAAF World Championships won the Major Championship category, following on from its predecessor Daegu 2011 which won the Best Press Facilities award two years ago.AIPS for the IAAF

Jamaica's sprint star Usain Bolt has been voted the AIPS Best Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row, and the fourth time in total, following his other wins in 2008 and 2009. 

Bolt named AIPS Athlete of the Year again

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best jumps performances of the year with Julin covering the men’s events and Jalava the women’s.Men’s high jumpUsually post-Olympic years are calm, but thanks to four jumpers – Bohdan Bondarenko, Mutaz Essa Barshim, Derek Drouin and Erik Kynard – this was certainly not the case for the men’s high jump in 2013 as they made jumping at the 2.40m region a far-from-futile pursuit.Bondarenko even made 2.40m-plus jumps look ‘probable’ rather than just ‘possible’ in a way the world hasn’t witnessed since the heydays of Javier Sotomayor some 20-25 years ago.A former super talent beset for years by injuries, Bondarenko finally got the chance to fulfil that early promise. His 2.33m for the win at the IAAF Diamond League opener in Doha was just the beginning.Bondarenko first showed his new super lift-off at the Diamond League meeting in Birmingham where he cleared 2.36m with ease. He didn’t try anything higher as he had Lausanne scheduled just four days later. There came his 2.41m and world record attempts at 2.46m. In London three weeks later he cleared 2.38m with attempts at 2.47m and finally at the IAAF World Championships – following a bold every-other-height strategy – he cleared 2.41m and attempted 2.46m.Although Bondarenko was impressive this summer, he still didn’t have the event to himself as the likes of Barshim, Drouin and Kynard were still jumping when the bar closed in on the 2.40m heights. Barshim actually beat Bondarenko in joining the 2.40m club by making that height at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene.In Moscow it took 2.38m to win a medal, something that has happened only once before, at the 1987 World Championships.Until now, Russia had been considered the leading nation in this event for decades, but despite being the host nation of this year’s World Championships, they had no part in the 2013 revolution of the event. Even their Olympic champion Ivan Ukhov could only finish fourth in Moscow.Men’s pole vaultRenaud Lavillenie has won it all – almost. He has one Olympic gold medal, two European, one world indoor and three European indoor titles. But the outdoor world title has so far proved elusive.After bronze medals in 2009 and 2011, an even more agonising silver followed this year in Moscow. There is no doubt that Lavillenie has been the foremost vaulter in recent years as proven by him winning the Diamond Race every year since 2010.But on any given day Lavillenie is still vulnerable, and despite having the top seven performances this summer, he lost the world title on count-back to Raphael Holzdeppe. It was no surprise that a German would defeat him as they have consistently provided his toughest opposition and in Moscow they filled three of the top five places.Former pole vault superpowers USA and Russia are currently struggling. 2007 world champion Brad Walker was the only US finalist in Moscow where he ended up fourth, missing a medal only on count-back. Host nation Russia had to be content with an eighth place as their other two vaulters didn’t advance from the qualification.For the upcoming Olympic host Brazil, however, the future looks bright as Augusto de Oliveira and 2012 world junior champion Thiago da Silva raised their games significantly in 2013, taking turns at raising the South American record beyond 5.80m. The 23-year-old de Oliveira showed great consistency at the 5.70m+ level and reached the Moscow final.Men’s long jumpThe USA can claim six of the seven top long jumpers of all-time, but in 2013 their leading athlete tied for 15th place on world List and only four-time world champion Dwight Phillips – in his farewell season at age 35 – managed to reach the final of the World Championships.The already exceptional geographical diversity of this event became even more pronounced this year. In Moscow the twelve finalists represented eleven different nations from Europe, Africa and Asia as well as North, Central and South America.Last year Russia’s Aleksandr Menkov had a brilliant season of consistent 8.20m jumping with only one small blip in the Olympic final where he ended up 11th. The 2013 Menkov was even better with consistent 8.30m jumping – and this time everything also worked out when it mattered the most.After a somewhat conservative 8.14m in the first round in Moscow, Menkov produced the three longest jumps of his career so far: 8.52m, 8.43m and finally 8.56m, all with negligible wind assistance.Behind Menkov, the picture of this season was quite unclear as Olympic champion Greg Rutherford didn’t quite manage to catch up after an operation. The previously unheralded Mexican Luis Rivera defeated Menkov at the World University Games and got the bronze in Moscow behind Ignisious Gaisah who took his second world silver eight years after the first. Just missing out on a medal was resurging former junior star Eusebio Caceres of Spain.Men’s triple jumpIn triple jump history, 2013 will be remembered as the year when world indoor record-holder Teddy Tamgho returned to the competitive scene after a break of twenty months caused by a career-threatening injury.But Tamgho didn’t just return. He won the world title by 36cm, and his winning leap of 18.04m made him just the third 18-metre jumper in history.Except for the exploits of the Frenchman – who in Moscow had narrow fouls which looked to be in the region of the world record – 2013 was a fairly low-key year for the event. At just 17, the number of 17-metre jumpers was the lowest for more than thirty years. In the previous post-Olympic year of 2009, there were more than twice as many.The dip will likely pass quickly though, as the current group of leading jumpers is quite young. At 24, Tamgho is the oldest in the top six as the reigning Olympic champion Christian Taylor is one year younger, while world indoor champion Will Claye is two years younger.Add to that the two latest products of the Cuban conveyor belt for world class triple jumpers, Pedro Pablo Pichardo and Ernesto Reve. World junior champion Pichardo improved by 90cm this year and took the silver medal in Moscow, while 2010 world junior silver medallist Reve was the Cuban champion and had four jumps beyond 17.30m before missing Moscow through injury.Women’s high jumpIt was as different a season as one could have imagined in the women’s high jump. With two-time world champion Blanka Vlasic back in competition, and Olympic champion Anna Chicherova looking to retain her 2011 world title from Daegu, all the talk was about a duel between them at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.Sadly, the duel never happened with the Croatian stopping her season after the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Monaco in July, despite jumping two metres in June, giving Chicherova a seemingly clear path to gold.But it wasn’t so easy as the Russian was also struggling for form during the season. She cleared 2.02m in Beijing in May and then 2.01m at the Diamond League in Paris, but overall wasn’t in the same form she had in 2011 and 2012.Instead it was USA’s Brigetta Barrett who went to Moscow with a world-leading 2.04m from the US Championships. The 22-year-old won the silver at the London Olympics, so she wasn’t a newcomer, but being the favourite was new.With Chicherova failing to clear two metres in Moscow and ending up with a joint bronze with Spain’s Ruth Beitia, many thought Barrett would win gold, but little did they know.Instead 27-year-old Russian Svetlana Shkolina, the Olympic bronze medallist who went to Moscow with a season’s best of just 1.98m, surprised everyone – including Barrett – with a first-time clearance at 2.03m. It brought her an unprecedented gold medal in front of a happy home crowd, while Barrett won another silver with 2.00m.Women’s pole vaultThere were three athletes capable of winning the world pole vault title in Moscow.USA’s 31-year-old Jenn Suhr was the first one to go big, setting a world indoor record of 5.02m at the US Indoor Championships in March.Also 31, Yelena Isinbayeva’s previous world title had aged six years before the Moscow final. The Russian only competed three times before the World Championships, but results of 4.70m, 4.78m and 4.75m were good enough to guarantee she would be fighting for the top podium.The most consistent athlete during the season was Olympic silver medallist Yarisley Silva, who set three Caribbean records indoors and two outdoors with a world-leading 4.90m coming in Hengelo in June. The 26-year-old Cuban rose to a new level in 2013, recording her nine best career results this season.The top trio didn’t meet too many times before Moscow, but Silva was stronger than Suhr in the last two clashes in Birmingham and London. All three athletes were still within contention for the title in Moscow at the deciding height of 4.89m with Suhr leading the competition.But once more Isinbayeva was the one who rose to the occasion and a first-time clearance at a season’s best of 4.89m sealed her third world title in front of a delighted Russian crowd.Suhr took silver with an outdoor season’s best of 4.82m, while Silva won her first World Championships medal with the same height for bronze.Women’s long jumpThis season started with a blast with Olympic champion Brittney Reese exploding to a 7.25m personal best and Diamond League record in Doha. With a start like that, many thought it would be a piece of cake for her to add a third world title, but things didn’t go smoothly for the US 27-year-old during the season.She could only jump 5.99m at the Diamond League meeting in New York and then was left with no mark at all at the US Championships in June. With a good 6.96m result in Lausanne, her last meeting before Moscow, Reese was in big trouble in the World Championships qualification.Her 6.57m finally made it through in the last qualifying spot – and even then, only on count-back - but in the final it was business as usual with her 7.01m leap enough for her third straight world title.German surprise name Sosthene Taroum Moguenara jumped a big personal best 7.04m in August in her last meeting before Moscow, but despite making the final there the 24-year-old finished in 12th place.Many thought that Nigerian Blessing Okagbare, in terrific running form in 2013, would be able to challenge Reese in Moscow, but she could quite not find a way to produce a perfect jump. Nevertheless, her 6.99m for the silver medal was by no means a disappointment. The 25-year-old jumped a 7.00m personal best in Monaco and went even longer with wind assistance, jumping 7.14m in Doha and 7.04m in Monaco.With top Russians Darya Klishina and Lyudmila Kolchanova failing to produce good marks in Moscow, Serbian Ivana Spanovic snatched a surprise bronze with a 6.82m national record.Women’s triple jumpThe early season in the women’s triple jump suggested it would be another successful campaign for Olha Saladuha. The 30-year-old Ukrainian won the world title in Daegu 2011 and had set a personal best of 14.99m to win the European title in Helsinki before taking Olympic bronze in London.A 14.88m national indoor record for the European title in Gothenburg and an early 14.85m season’s best at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene suggested her form would only get better towards Moscow. But it didn’t, and that opened the door for another top jumper, Caterine Ibarguen, who won the silver in London 2012 and bronze in Daegu 2011.The 29-year-old Colombian, who in addition to the triple jump (14.99m) also holds national records in the high jump (1.93m) and long jump (6.73m), was impressive during the 2013 season. She won all of her meetings before and after Moscow, making it nine wins in nine meets.In Moscow she produced her winning jump of 14.85m in round two, tying Saladuha’s world-leading mark, but slightly short of the marginally wind-assisted 14.93m jump Ibarguen set in Eugene.Russian Yekaterina Koneva won the silver with 14.81m in Moscow with Saladuha in third with 14.65m.A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava for the IAAF

Statisticians A Lennart Julin and Mirko Jalava look back on the best jumps performances of the year with Julin covering the men’s events and Jalava the women’s.

2013 end-of-year reviews – jumps

The IAAF Ambassadors Press Conference, marking 30 years of the IAAF World Championships, featured two IAAF Ambassadors, 1997 World 400m Hurdles champion Stephane Diagana and 1997 World 200m champion Ato Boldon. Recently-crowned World Pole Vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva was also there as a guest on Thursday (15).A montage of the 1997 edition was shown before the conference got underway, but afterwards Boldon surprisingly said that despite it being his only World title, it was not his fondest memory.“That meet was not as satisfying as you'd imagine it would be for a World title,” he said. “Really I was trying to redeem myself for having ruined the 100m in which I was fifth. It's an okay memory, just not one of my top ones. Had I not won, people back home would not have let me back into the country!”When asked what is his favourite memory, Boldon said the 1998 Commonwealth Games where he won gold in a time of 9.88.“That evening at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Frankie Fredericks and I really brought the house down,” he said. “It’s not often in my career when I’d go to a championships and I was the featured athlete. It was also my best performance in a high-pressure final.“Of course, at the end of the day, my country only has one World champion – maybe by the end of today it will be two, with Jehue Gordon in the 400m Hurdles – but for now we only have one World champion, so I’m very proud that I was the first; but my memory of that race was that it was simply more of a relief that I won.”Diagana, meanwhile, looks back on the 1997 World Championships in Athens as the highlight of his career.The Frenchman finished fourth at the 1993 edition, then third two years later but was forced to miss the 1996 Olympics through injury.“Athens is a great, great memory for me,” said Diagana, now 44. “I had great expectations for the 1996 Olympics, but I was out for the whole season with a stress fracture. 1997 was really special, and I thought it may be my last World Championships, so I had to make it better than ever. It was a really tough race with Bryan Bronson, but I’m glad I won and it’s definitely my best memory.”Diagana was asked about tonight’s women’s 400m Hurdles final and whether he thought Zuzana Hejnova could live up to expectation and win gold for the Czech Republic.“I think she can go really fast,” he said. “When you’re running so consistently at low 53s, it means you’re probably able to run 52.5, which would be close to the World record. If she doesn’t get it today, then maybe at the end of the season or next year.“I think she will win gold, but this is the hurdles, not the flat – even in the flat there are no guarantees as we saw the other night with LaShawn Merrit and Kirani James.“The other favourite maybe is Perri Shakes-Drayton; she has run really fast on the flat. There’s still a big difference between her hurdles and flat times, but if she can run better than ever then she could do a 53.2 or 53.3: those two athletes are my favourites for the final.”Isinbayeva, meanwhile, reiterated that she will soon be taking a break from the sport as she prioritises becoming a mother.“I wouldn’t say a definite yes or no about being in Rio (for the 2016 Olympic Games),” she said. “My main goal is to become a mum; the birth of a child means more than any gold medal. Every girl says the same and it’s no different for me.“Everything will depend on my maternal feelings. If I feel I can come back to the sport in Rio, then I will do it. But if I feel I’d like to stay at home with the baby, then no one would be able to force me to come back.”Jon Mulkeen for the IAAF

IAAF Ambassadors Press Conference 15 August: Ato Boldon, Stephane Diagana and Yelena Isinbayeva

They came, they saw, they went home happy.Very happy.The biggest crowd of the championships, more than were inside Luzhniki Stadium to watch Usain Bolt win the 100m final on Sunday, came to see Russian Pole Vault diva Yelena Isinbayeva claim her third IAAF World Championships title.Most likely, it seems, for the final time. Clearly, Muscovites like their field and track in that order. Or, as is most likely, they simply love Yelena Isinbayeva, the poster girl for these championships whose vaulting silhouette adorns the official event logo. They also know their Pole Vault, creating an atmosphere even more electric than the lightning strikes during Bolt’s 100m final, propelling the ebullient Russian to an upset victory.After two early misses the 31-year-old responded to the chants of “Yelena, Yelena” from the adoring audience to produce her best outdoor jump in four years with a towering first-attempt clearance at 4.89m.It sent the stadium into hysteria.Following misses with all three of their attempts at that height from the two remaining competitors, the USA’s London 2012 Olympic Games champion Jenn Suhr and Cuba’s silver medallist last summer Yarisley Silva, a third World title was confirmed. “I wanted to leave a bright trace with my last meet,” she said, an indication that this season will, after all, be her last before taking a break with a potential return at some point in the future.“I was dreaming about the gold medal since 2009 when I lost the World Championships title. I am so proud that I’ve been able to overcome my difficulties from the past and become World champion today.”It almost wasn’t to beAfter the victory, she raced into the stands to embrace Yevgeny Trofimov, the coach who guided her to early successes from the age of 15 when she turned her attention to the Pole Vault after she grew too tall for gymnastics.&nbsp; Following her Olympic triumph in Athens in 2004 she left to train with Sergey Bubka’s mentor Vitaly Petrov in Italy, a move which delivered continued success until she effectively ran out of steam in 2010.After, an 11-month break followed before her return to Trofimov, and two years into their second ‘marriage’, they have now returned to the top of the world.“He never put his arms down, he always believed in me,” she said.<div class="quote">“He resurrected me, he resuscitated me. Instilled so much faith, he promised me that I would return to my best.”</div> Isinbayeva revealed she gave significant thought to retiring after a bronze medal in London. With no energy left, Trofimov never insisted she return to training.“He was a wise man; he never forced me, he listened to me. So then in March he said, ‘Shall we try, let’s give it a shot.’ That’s how it all began.“Before 2009, I’d never faced defeat. I’d never faced troubles or difficulties. Everything was easy to me, but since 2009 I’ve been very, very down. I lost everything. Of course it hurt me a lot. I thought maybe I have to stop because I’m not able to jump higher anymore.“But my coach said: ‘don’t give up, don’t give up, I believe in you, soon you will come back to your top’.” Taking a break to start a familyIn June, Isinbayeva said she was going to retire, “My career will finish 100 percent at the World Championships,” she said, but subsequently changed her position saying she would take a break, to marry and start a family.She says that Rio is on her mind and she would like to win one more Olympic gold to go with her victories in Athens and Beijing. It seems unlikely though.“I will take the break to have a baby,” she said. “I will try and come back for Rio, but if something goes wrong I will announce officially that I will retire.”With two Olympic titles, three outdoor and four indoor World championship wins and the setter of 15 outdoor and 13 indoor World records, taking the standard from 4.82m in 2003 to its current 5.06m in 2009, it has been a remarkable journey.She takes leave as the undisputed champion and if it transpires that she has jumped her final jump, then she will end her career having transformed the event. Fittingly her final jumps were attempts at a 29th World record and while not successful, like the true leading lady she had the crowd in her lap until the very end.Press conference to savourThe story should end there, but if this is the last we see of Yelena Isinbayeva then she gave a farewell press conference to remember. It started on Tuesday and finished on Wednesday, but had a full room of tired media fully engaged in her excitement.On how she will celebrate her win, she added that: “We are going to go to nightclubs, we are going to celebrate big time. Moscow will be going crazy.”She will be Mayor of one of the Athletes Villages for the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi in 2014, in what she describes as a big year.“In 2014, it will be the year of being a VIP for me. I’ll just be a big shot and I will be going around like a big shot.” “And I will be walking like a pregnant penguin.”David Culbert for the IAAF

Sparkling Yelena flies through the Moscow sky

There were distance finals, sprint finals, throws finals, and even a race walk, but Tuesday was the day Yelena Isinbayeva wrote, stage managed, and played the starring role at the IAAF World Championships in Moscow.Isinbayeva did not have the best start, with misses at her opening height of 4.65m and 4.82m, but her first-attempt clearance at 4.89m – a height neither silver medallist Jenn Suhr nor bronze medallist Yarisley Silva could clear – sealed victory and a third World Championships gold for the Russian heroine.The Pole Vault was going to be a highlight from the beginning, with a bigger crowd in the stadium than attended Sunday night for the men’s 100m final, mostly packed at the first bend to watch the Pole Vault. It started early, and Isinbayeva’s habitual passing to late heights, early misses, and eventual theatrics made it a thrilling ride for those looking for it.She asked, discreetly, for more noise when on the runway, and for less when other events were on the track, and for the most part she got what she asked for.In return, she delivered drama, victory, three attempts at a would-be World record of 5.07m, and finally exuberant celebration, including a jumping hug with the mascot and multiple cartwheels on her lap of honour.Harting goes for threeRobert Harting went one better than Isinbayeva by stripping his shirt off in his now-traditional celebration after winning his third consecutive Discus title.The German went into the lead in the first round, and in subsequent rounds improved his mark to the winning distance of 69.11m. With victory assured, he flung another out to 69.08m in the sixth round before beginning his exuberant celebration on the back bend.Silver went to Piotr Malachowski with a fifth-round 68.36m; Gerd Kanter took bronze with his 65.19m.Down to the seventh in the HeptathlonThe wide-open Heptathlon delivered on its promise, shuffling its order slightly after the Long Jump, greatly in the Javelin, and finally once more in the closing 800m.Ukrainian Hanna Melnychenko held the lead throughout the day, but behind her Brianne Theisen Eaton, Claudia Rath, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dafne Schippers all took turns in the second and third positions.For silver and bronze, all three had a shot going in to the 800m. Theisen Eaton had the strongest position and made the most of it, securing her silver, but a mad dash by Schippers passed Rath and Johnson-Thompson to put the 2010 World junior champion into senior bronze.Two laps of firstsThe men’s 800m final delivered its own share of thrills. Duane Solomon, fourth in London, led the early going, but coming in to the homestretch it was his team-mate Nick Symmonds who was shoulder to shoulder with Mohammed Aman.Aman was the stronger, winning Ethiopia’s first medal at a distance shorter than 1500m. Symmonds’ silver was the USA’s best finish in the history of the championships and their first since 1997. In bronze was Ayanleh Souleiman, winning Djibouti’s first-ever medal on the track in any event.Merritt returns to the topLaShawn Merritt reclaimed his own World crown in the 400m, dominating the race to win with a personal best of 43.74 while his team-mate Tony McQuay swept up for silver in 44.40, also a PB. Luguelin Santos took bronze as defending champion Kirani James faded badly in the homestretch, finishing seventh in 44.99.Milcah Chemos followed through with the women’s 3000m Steeplechase victory she’d been foreshadowing for years, clocking a world-leading 9:11.65.Chemos was present near the front throughout the race, and though she looked vulnerable in the closing straight, pulled clear for the win ahead of teammate Lydia Chepkurui (9:12.55) and Ethiopia’s Sofia Assefa, who fell on the penultimate lap.Another title for LashmanovaThe first final of the day was actually the women’s 20km Race Walk, which was a triumph for the hosts as Russians took the first two spots, and almost swept the medals.After a conservative start, Elena Lashmanova and Anisya Kirdyapkina moved to the front and pulled away from the rest of the pack. The pair were set to divide the first medals amongst each other, and Lashmanova won the draw, entering the stadium several seconds ahead of Kirdyapkina, though she almost lost all that margin by twice misunderstanding where the finish line was.Team-mate Vera Sokolova tore through the pack in the last 5km and entered the stadium third, only to be disqualified with just over 400m to walk. Bronze went to China’s Liu Hong instead.Parker Morse for IAAFMoscow 2013 spectator attendance figuresTue Aug 13 AM 15,674 spectators (31,674 total)** PM 32,431 spectators (48,431 total)**Moscow 2013 stadium configuration: Tue Aug 13 – 50,000 capacity (34,000 spectators + 16,000 accredited guests – VIPS, media, athletes etc).Spectator attendance figures are based upon scan of tickets upon entry at stadium gate (multiple entry/exit via same ticket counts once).

Isinbayeva runs the show – Day 4 wrap, Moscow 2013

The Sydney 2000 Olympics will be remembered for Cathy
Freeman’s gold on ‘Magic Monday’. Last year’s Olympic Games saw Jessica
Ennis-Hill take gold on ‘Super Saturday’. And now another poster girl for a
global championships, Yelena Isinbayeva, triumphed in front of her home crowd
on what could be remembered as ‘Terrific Tuesday’.So the term ‘girl’ may be stretching things for a
31-year-old woman who was competing at her sixth World Championships, seeking
to add a third gold medal to her collection.Not only did Isinbayeva have the pressure of being the
featured athlete on the logo for the championships, she also had the weight of expectation
bearing down on her shoulders from the local – and vocal – crowd inside the
Luzhniki Stadium.But tonight Isinbayeva appeared back to her old dominant
self from several years ago, still talking to her pole before each vault, still
too good for the rest of the world.A miss at her opening height did not shake her and she duly
sailed over 4.65m on her second attempt. She then cleared 4.75m at the first
time of asking, but didn’t take the lead as Olympic champion Jenn Suhr and
Germany’s Silke Spiegelburg had also cleared that height with faultless records
up to that point.Cuba’s world leader Yarisley Silva got over 4.75m at the
second time of asking, having needed three attempts at her previous height.
With four women clearing 4.75m, it matched the depth of the 2007 World and 2008
Olympic finals.Defending champion Fabiana Murer could not clear 4.75m
though and exited the competition, the Brazilian only managing a best of 4.65m.
Also bowing out at that stage were Isinbayeva’s Russian team-mates, Anastasia
Savchenko and Angelina Zhuk-Krasnova.That simply meant that the crowd’s full attention was now
focused on their star athlete. None of the four remaining finalists cleared the
next height, 4.82m, at the first time of asking. Isinbayeva then popped over it
on her second try, while Suhr did likewise to maintain her lead on count-back.Silva once again needed three attempts to clear it, while
Spiegelburg could not quite manage it. The German finished fourth, matching her
finish from the 2009 World Championships, 2012 European Championships, 2012
World Indoor Championships and 2012 Olympic Games.The medals were finally decided at 4.89m. Isinbayeva was up
first and was flawless again, popping over the bar to a backdrop of rapturous applause.
She celebrated, but only briefly as she was all too aware that two strong
opponents were left in the competition.It’s difficult to blame a partisan crowd for cheering when
the opponents of their favourite athlete register a foul, and they proceeded to
do so six times as Suhr and Silva each notched up three failures, the last of
which sent the crowd wild as it guaranteed Isinbayeva’s victory.In her usual fashion, Isinbayeva hadn’t watch any of those
attempts and she was faced the other way, unable to remove the broad smile from
her face. With bronze medallist Silva’s exit from the competition confirmed,
she ran over to the crowd and was momentarily swamped by them before returning
to the pole vault apron to attempt one final height.She upped the bar to 5.07m, a would-be World record. Her three
failed attempts were respectable, but tonight wasn’t about records. It was
about putting on a show to her legions of loyal fans that had supported her
over the years through her many World records and gold medals; this,
undoubtedly, being the most memorable of those.Jon Mulkeen for the
IAAF

Report: Women’s Pole Vault final – Moscow 2013

Tuesday’s action on day four of the IAAF World Championships may be the most emblematic of the entire meet, if only because it features the primary component of the championships’ logo.The women’s Pole Vault final will bring to the spotlight Yelena Isinbayeva, the most dominant vaulter of the last decade who is featured in action (and in silhouette) on the logo. Isinbayeva has not always been in her best form over the last few years but in Sunday’s qualifying she showed a flash of her old, efficient and effective, self when she opted to vault only once, a single successful attempt at the last height required for qualification. Among her opponents are Brazil’s defending champion Fabiana Murer and USA’s Olympic champion Jenn Suhr as well as Cuba’s 2013 Diamond Race leader Yarisley Silva.Another showdown between the defending champion Kiriani James and 2009 champion Lashawn Merritt is shaping up in the men’s 400m final, a race that will cap the night. Both James and Merritt appeared strong and confident in Monday night’s semi-finals.The men’s 800m final is missing its defending champion David Rudisha, but still has semi-final winners: Ethiopia’s 2012 World Indoor Championships gold medallist Mohammed Aman, 2013 US champion Duane Solomon and Djibouti talent Ayanleh Souleiman. With Solomon a confirmed front-runner and team mate Nick Symmonds a fast closer, drama can be expected down the homestretch.The other field event of Tuesday evening, the men’s Discus Throw, features two-time defending champion Robert Harting, for whom the third would certainly represent the chance to destroy yet another competition vest. Harting had the longest throw in qualifying, but considering he, Poland’s 2012 world leader Piotr Malachowski, and Estonia’s 2008 Olympic champion Gerd Kanter qualified with only one throw each, qualifying distances may not be as effective as a guide to the actual competition.&nbsp; Milcha Cheiwa Chemos has not yet led Kenya to the kind of women’s 3000m Steeplechase glory that the men have enjoyed for decades; for the past three championships, in fact, Chemos’s bronzes have been the Kenyan women’s best results. If 2013 is to be Chemos’ year – and it may be her best opportunity – that time will come on Tuesday evening.Real intrigue will come in the final three events of the Heptathlon: the Long Jump, Javelin Throw and 800m. Ukraine’s Ganna Melnichenko held a 75 point lead overnight with 3912 points. The Netherlands’ former World junior champion Dafne Schippers stood second with 3837 and had just one point on the USA’s Sharon Day, lying third with 3836 points while Canada’s Brianne Theisen Eaton is fourth, just 26 points back with 3810. With every event reshuffling the order on day one, day two might see a medalist even coming from outside those four.Parker Morse for the IAAF