News30 Mar 2009


Indoor season behind her, Berlin 2009 is now the focus for Isinbayeva

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Yelena Isinbayeva at MITT-2009 press-conference in Moscow (© Yelena Kurdyumova and Sergey Porada)

With another goal behind her this winter, the first indoor five metre clearance in the Pole Vault, reigning Olympic, World and European champion Yelena Isinbayeva is now firmly focusing her attentions towards her summer campaign and her third consecutive World title at the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Berlin, Germany (15 - 23 Aug 2009).

“The main target this summer for me will be the World Championships in Berlin,” said Isinbayeva while on a recent ten-day visit to Volgograd. Isinbayeva also confirmed that she’ll contest each of the ÅF Golden League meetings, “And three Grand Prix meetings which fit in-between.”

The 26-year-old, last year’s World Athlete of the Year said she doesn’t currently see any “serious rivals” in her event – “My main rival is myself” she said – and instead finds her motivation in the fans of the sport.

“My motivation now comes from people, and especially children, who love sport – my spectators and fans. More and more often it happens that I remain in the competitions alone, and compete with myself. And only the support of my fans and my coach motivates me.”

“I like that I can set an example for children and teenagers who are also my fans,” Isinbayeva continued. “It is good to feel that they can take something useful from me. I think I can make them feel that hard work can bring success in life and, especially in sport, and that this is the way to live instead of killing time somewhere.”

After a brief but successful indoor season in which she increased her collection of World records to 26, Isinbayeva relished a quick visit at her childhood home with family.

“I was glad to see my parents and friends in Volgograd because I spend more time training in Monaco and Italy, where the climate is more favorable.”

But she soon resumed her daily grind.

“Between seasons I train twice a day – in the morning and evening, and sleep during the interval between training sessions. So on weekdays I only have some time in the evening left for leisure, after my second training. I usually do nothing, just sit watching TV, or having some rest, since I don’t have much time and strength left to go out.”

Weekends leave a little more time for leisure, when she makes the time to see a movie, do some shopping, chores around her flat, read a book, or “learn something new”.

While training in Italy I learned to understand and speak some Italian,” she said, illustrating how she prefers to use her spare time as constructively as possible. “I did not take any lessons, just during my three years there helped me to study and learn.”

The sky remains the limit

Isinbayeva has repeatedly reiterated that she doesn’t yet know what her limit may be, but is sure that with her current leaps, 5.05m outdoors and 5.00m indoors, don’t signify that limit yet.
 
“I am very ambitious and it is very important for me to lift the bar higher as often as possible,” she said. “Of course I feel I can lift the bar higher now. If I did not feel that, I would have stopped performing already. It would have made no sense continue training.”

“I can’t say how much higher I can jump now, maybe raise the bar one centimetre and see how it works,” she said. “I am not ready to give any concrete numbers now.”

During the past winter season, Isinbayeva said she used a 4.60m pole, with an 18.3 stiffness, and gripping it at 4.55m, and believes she can go higher with a similar pole.

“It is possible to jump higher than 5.05m with the same pole. It all depends on the technical performance of the vault. There is no direct relevance between the pole stiffness and height. A stiffer pole can be used too. It is thought that if the pole is longer and stiffer, it can catapult an athlete higher, but for this everything must be done just right. Stiffer poles are unforgiving, and are more likely to cause an injury.”

Staying healthy

Like most athletes, Isinbayeva needs to listen to the tiniest of signals in her body to avoid injury, and act upon remedying them when they do pop up.

“Every athlete has micro injuries which are not felt in normal life, but if they are not healed in time, then exertion from hard everyday workouts will inevitably lead to aggravation of these injuries.”

“Last October I needed rehab after the Olympic Games more than ever. I didn’t say anything about the injury at the time, but felt it must be healed.” Her solution? A ten-day stay at the Terme Euganee-Abano Montegrotto in Italy, one of the largest and oldest spa resorts in Europe.

“There is geothermal water, running from the heart of the hills in this area which was used even during in the times of the Roman Empire. There is a very beautiful large park and many natural water spas.” Isinbayeva underwent salt water and mud treatments, the latter which she said proved most beneficial.

“They showed me how mud is made of clay, bromine iodine salt water and micro-algae. It has anti-inflammatory effect and relieves stress. The mud helped me most of all. As a result, the injury was completely healed. I knew about mud treatments before but never used them. Now I believe in it and hope it will help me in training for future competitions and in improving the World record.”

Beyond Berlin, looking forward to home competitive appearances

Schedule conflicts and weather conditions have kept her from competing in front of Russian crowds since the 2007 Russian Challenge, but she is eager to return.

“I love to perform in Moscow but during last two years I could not do it often. I always want to do something unforgettable in Moscow. I have been working together with the organizers of “Russian Winter” and “Russian Challenge” tournaments to fit them into my schedule."

"There will be the World Indoor Championships next winter, but I still hope I will be able to come to Russian Winter 2009 in Moscow. There also will be the World Championship in Moscow in 2013. I already said before that I was going to finish my sports career after Moscow 2013. I would love to go to Olympic London in 2012 of course too, if my health allows.”

Yelena Kurdyumova and Sergey Porada for the IAAF

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