Isinbayeva crashes out, but Russia enjoys success in Heptathlon, steeplechase


Day four in Daegu saw the fall of yet another star: All-time great women pole vault champion Elena Isinbayeva failed to win the title at the World Championships.

Fabiana Murer of Brazil won the women’s pole vault on Tuesday night, clearing 4.85 meters while two-time Olympic and world champion Isinbayeva was eliminated.

The 2010 World Indoor Champion Murer saw off Martina Strutz of Germany who took silver with new national record at 4.80.

Isinbayeva’s fellow countrywoman Svetlana Feofanova won the bronze with her season best effort at 4.75.

Having failed at 4.75, Isinbayeva took a gamble putting the bar up to 4.80m, but failed at both attempts to clear the height to finish in sixth. Her close rival and Olympic silver medalist Jenn Suhr, who came to Daegu with a world lead of 4.91m, also failed at 4.70m to finish fourth. Also defending champion Anna Rogowska of Poland suffered an early elimination after failing to clear 4.70m.

In the men’s 400, Kirani James of Grenada drove past U.S. defending champion LaShawn Merritt at the last few meters to take the gold.

With what looked like Merritt’s win till the last bend, James gave it his all to close the distance and edged forward for a neck and neck finish of 44.60 seconds, a mere 0.03 ahead of the U.S. Olympic champion.

Belgium’s Kevin Borlee ran just ahead of the trailing pack to take third, while his older twin brother Jonathan Borlee came in at fifth.

The world record holder David Rudisha of Kenya confirmed his ability in the men’s 800 meters, with his first international adult title.

Despite the chilly weather and the cool breeze, the 22-year-old Kenyan took the lead in the first bend of the race and held on to it with a 1 minute and 43.91 second finish.

The 192 centimeter runner, who ran unbeaten in the last two years, broke two world records in 2010 including his own with 1:41.01.

In the second lap of the race Russia’s Yuriy Borzakovskiy threatened to overcome the Kenyan but faded to fall behind Sudan’s Abubaker Kaki for bronze.

Rudisha dropped out of the semifinals in the 2009 championship in Berlin because of the chilly weather, but that was his most recent loss.

Russia’s Tatyana Chernova won comfortably in the women’s heptathlon, finishing right behind the British defending champion Jessica Ennis in the 800 meters, but with a comfortable lead in points.

Ennis went into the last event needing to finish 9 seconds ahead of the Russian to take gold, but was unable to shake her, finishing 0.23 seconds ahead and settling for silver.

Earlier in the day, Chernova threw her season’s best in the javelin, with 52.85 meters, while Ennis showed her worst performance in four years, giving the Russian a 133 point lead going into the 800.

The 9 seconds Ennis needed looked possible at the start of the race, but after the initial lead Ennis was unable to further distance herself from the Russian and was overtaken by Poland’s Karolina Tyminska.

Germany’s Jennifer Oeser went into the event in third, narrowly ahead of her rivals, but held off the super fast Polish’s attempt to take third overall.

Chernova’s 6880 points was the world’s best performance this season.

Russia enjoyed more success as 2009 Berlin silver medalist Yuliya Zaripova set a world season record of 9:07.03 to take gold in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, ahead of Tunisia’s Habiba Ghribi and Kenya’s Milcah Chemos.

In the men’s discus, defending champion Robert Harting of Germany won gold by throwing 68.97 meters, while Estonia’s Gerd Kanter finished second with a throw of 66.95 and Indian record holder Ehsan Hadadi set his season best record of 66.08 to finish third.


By Oh Kyu-wook and Robert Lee
(596story@heraldcorp.com), (robert@heraldcorp.com)