World Champs WPV - Isi NH! Rogowska gold! Pyrek/Johnson silv

[KirkB]

I was getting on here to post that I wanted to give her props for not making excuses. It's the pole vault, sometimes it just doesn't come together just right in your first three attempts.

Her consistency is quite astounding ... comparable to Tiger Woods ... if not better. I'm not sure what her career NH record is, but if you go 5 years winning almost every meet, then you're pretty damn consistent.

You could fault her for starting too high, but ONLY if you've had no more than a couple NHs in YOUR last 5 years of vaulting.

Kirk

[BruceFlorman]

Translated from the All-Russian Athletics Federation website:

Vitaly Petrov: "Everyone has the right to make a mistake"
18.08.2009

Vitaly Petrov - Yelena Isinbaeva’s coach - commented on the double Olympic champion’s defeat in the pole vault, which she suffered during the World Championships in Berlin.

“I tell you honestly, I’m in a state of shock. I don’t understand what happened, unlike Lena, who has already accepted the loss. We were absolutely ready for the world championships and Lena had no injuries. Psychologically, everything was fine, but as I sat in the grandstands, I looked into the sector and saw that Isinbaeva wasn’t there. Of course, I can’t analyze the situation now; I’ll review it when I wake up. Tactically everything was set up properly. It was our usual decision to start with 4.75, because she’s such a high caliber athlete that starting from a lower height would only hinder herself. Moreover, Lena easily clears the height of 4.80 in training. But the most important thing that I want to say - every athlete must lose occasionally, no one can win all the time. It’s a pity that this setback took place in the world championship, but the main thing is - we have time before the Olympics in London to correct the mistakes.”

An interview with Yelena Isinbaeva will be published soon.

[birdi_gurlie]

Wowzers...that was totally unexpected...:O
Congrats to Chelsea Johnson!

[golfdane]

Translated from the All-Russian Athletics Federation website:

Vitaly Petrov: "Everyone has the right to make a mistake"
18.08.2009

Vitaly Petrov - Yelena Isinbaeva’s coach - commented on the double Olympic champion’s defeat in the pole vault, which she suffered during the World Championships in Berlin.

“I tell you honestly, I’m in a state of shock. I don’t understand what happened, unlike Lena, who has already accepted the loss. We were absolutely ready for the world championships and Lena had no injuries. Psychologically, everything was fine, but as I sat in the grandstands, I looked into the sector and saw that Isinbaeva wasn’t there. Of course, I can’t analyze the situation now; I’ll review it when I wake up. Tactically everything was set up properly. It was our usual decision to start with 4.75, because she’s such a high caliber athlete that starting from a lower height would only hinder herself. Moreover, Lena easily clears the height of 4.80 in training. But the most important thing that I want to say - every athlete must lose occasionally, no one can win all the time. It’s a pity that this setback took place in the world championship, but the main thing is - we have time before the Olympics in London to correct the mistakes.”

An interview with Yelena Isinbaeva will be published soon.

Unless she's clearing 4.80 consistently with a margin of 20-30cm in training, entering at 4.75 is a major mistake (IMHO). Her clearence in the qualification at 4.55 was not anywhere near 4.75 either. Still shocked! Looks like an attempt to show the whole world how superior she is compared to the rest of the field, has backfired. Perhaps her concentration blew, when Rogowska were still in contention at 4.75, when she had expected to be the only one left???
Cadeau's to her for not making any stupid excuses!

She'll be back.

[hardflex]

Isi looked beatable in London last month, her run wasn't as sharp as in the past. It let her down yesterday. I could see she didn't have the speed to make 4.80 on either of her last two attempts. I think passing to the winning height is a mistake anytime by anyone. She was probably trying to save her strength for a new WR and the big payday.

Rogowska is also great athletically and her vault has improved over the last month. She is poised to jump heads up with ISI in most meets although she's not ready for a WR yet.

Great job by Chelsea. It's good to have another American stepping on to the world stage. Jenn missed an opportunity here.

I think it's a great thing for the PV to have more competition in the field. It makes it much more interesting when they don't set WR's every time.

[rainbowgirl28]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/ol ... 4078.story

U.S. pole vaulter Chelsea Johnson takes 2nd in world championships
Isinbayeva falters, opening door for Johnson's silver



Chelsea Johnson celebrates winning the silver medal in the women's Pole Vault Final. (Alexander Hassenstein, Bongarts/Getty Images / August 17, 2009)


By Philip Hersh
Tribune reporter
August 18, 2009



BERLIN -- Chelsea Johnson empathized with Yelena Isinbayeva as the Tsarina of the pole vault lined up for her final attempt Monday night.

It was a sensation born of understanding the pressures inherent to their event, not of any particular feeling for Isinbayeva, whose diva demeanor as much as her dominance has set the Russian apart from her rivals.

"Third attempts," Johnson said, "are no fun."

Johnson, a UCLA grad in her first world meet, was content with her position at the time, having clinched at least a bronze medal. She had no doubt Isinbayeva would clear the bar at 15 feet 9 inches after missing her other two attempts, the first at 15-7, in the world championships final.

"I was like, 'Third place, that's cool,' " Johnson said.

There was no reason to expect anything else from Isinbayeva, who had won the last two Olympic and world titles, set 26 world records, has the top 10 vaults in history and has jumped higher than 15-9 on 30 occasions.

Isinbayeva had been unbeaten for six years until losing last month in London.

And now, after knocking down the bar with her chest on the final attempt, she has lost two straight.

"I don't have any particular explanation," Isinbayeva said. "Maybe it was destiny."

It left Johnson with a silver medal and sympathy for Isinbayeva, who hardly earned such consideration after failing to clear a height and finishing last in a final won by Poland's Anna Rogowska at 15-7.

"She could care less about me, but I feel bad for her," Johnson said. "Maybe she will learn from it, and it will make her a better competitor and more compassionate. I don't think she has had to feel those emotions."

It clearly will take more than one comeuppance. Isinbayeva, 27, was as graceless in defeat as she has been imperious in victory.

Asked if the end -- at least temporarily -- of her reign would encourage other vaulters, Isinbayeva retorted, "I think somebody is just lucky that I lost."

Johnson, 25, whose father, Jan, won the 1972 Olympic bronze medal and the 1968 Illinois state title for Bloom Trail High School, cleared 15-3 to share the silver with Monica Pyrek of Poland

[rainbowgirl28]

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/9077 ... 30901.html

Rogowaska surprises herself with women's pole vault win

08:26, August 18, 2009

Poland's Anna Rogowska felt like in dreams after winning the women's pole vault title at the World Championships on Monday.

She beat world's all-time great Elena Isinbayeva in the final as the Russian failed to clear any height.

Rogowska took the title by clearing 4.75 meters. Her compatriot Monika Pyrek and American Chelsea Johnson shared the silver with 4.65m.

"If somebody told me in the morning that I was going to get a gold medal today, I would just smile. I still do not believe I won. Maybe tomorrow I will realize it.

"Maybe I hoped for silver but gold is a big surprise for me. Once I was thinking about how it would be nice if there are two Polish girls taking medals from the world championships but it was just a dream. Now it happened.

It was the second time that Rogowska defeated Isinbayeva in three weeks. She beat the two-time defending champion at the London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace on July 24.

Source: Xinhua

[rainbowgirl28]

https://www.usatf.org/about/leadership/ ... ecordBlog/

"Off The Record"
A Blog by Jill M. Geer

Chelsea Johnson makes a name for herself

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BERLIN – Here at Olympic Stadium, various strains of popular, techno and heavy-metal music play over the loudspeakers for a few seconds at a time, to fill voids just before and after competition or to set a mood.

For the women's pole vault competition Monday night, I kept expecting to hear the Ting Ting's song "That's Not My Name" when Chelsea Johnson hit the runway.

At every international championship event, Team USA athletes take part in informational meetings and team-building activities prior to the start of competition. At the Team USA meeting on August 13, athletes engaged in an exercise that involved them chatting with teammates they didn't otherwise know, learning something about them, and then introducing that person to the rest of the team. It's an ice-breaker that often results in hilarity. The introduction of a discus thrower by a 400-meter runner may prove to be the most memorable off-track moment of these championships, but that's for another blog.

The athlete introducing Chelsea Johnson, who in this blog shall mercifully remain nameless, enthusiastically introduced her to the team as Lacy Janson. Um, right event, but the wrong person.

Although followers of American vaulting are very familiar with Chelsea, casual track fans who don't follow the vault might not have known her name prior to Monday night. Her father's name, Jan Johnson, has been in the vaulting world for decades. The 1972 Olympic bronze medalist in the men's pole vault, Jan Johnson owns and operates SkyJumpers Vertical Sports Club, runs camps around the country and is the nation's top expert in pole vault safety.

Chelsea first made a name for herself as a vaulter at UCLA, where she won the 2004 NCAA outdoor title, the 2006 indoor crown and broke the collegiate record (4.60m/15-1). Despite her collegiate success, Berlin marked the first time she had competed for Team USA at a World Championships or Olympic Games. First-timers in events as unforgiving as the vault often have to chalk up their first Worlds competition to experience, rather than aiming for the medal stand.

But the vault isn't unforgiving only to international-team neophytes. On Monday night, the female equivalent of Usain Bolt (read: "unbeatable"), Russian Yelena Isinbayeva, no-heighted. It's hard to say who was more stunned – the fans, the press, or Isinbayeva herself. She hasn't been full strength this year and already was beaten once, but to fail to make even a single height is something the world hasn't seen, and didn't expect to see, from the bionic woman of the vault. Indeed, the always engaging and effusive Isinbayeva left the track in tears.

While the world record holder was in the spotlight going three-and-out, Johnson was winning the first medal in a World Championship women's pole vault that doesn't have Stacy Dragila's name on it. It is somehow fitting that in Dragila's last meet as a Team USA athlete – she is retiring at the end of this year – Johnson provided a medal few expected.

The pole vault is an unpredictable event, which is one of the things that makes it so exciting. Have an untimely injury or bad timing on a particular night, and you can go from champ to chump. For Johnson, it was her time to be a champ.

At future team meetings, Chelsea Johnson's introductions will not only include her correct name, but also the words "World Championships silver medalist."

Pretty memorable stuff.

[altius]

Coaches may find this story interesting, Note hat Kate Dennison is not a superstar, may well never be, but she is optimising her talent as well as any athlete on the planet - with the help of a great young coach.

""Inside the beating heart of a world championship final"

Tom Fordyce | 22:23 UK time, Monday, 17 August 2009
For years I've wondered what goes on when you see a coach seated trackside, shouting to their athlete in the middle of a world final. What are they saying? What can they see? Can the athlete even hear them, let alone change technique and performance?

So, for the women's pole vault final, I abandoned the usual seat on the BBC commentary row and went down trackside with Steve Rippon, coach to British record-holder Kate Dennison. And it did not disappoint.

You think you know a bit about a sport. Then you watch it from mere feet away with a real expert, and suddenly it's brought into new and stunning focus.

Team Dennison is four-strong. Along with coach Steve, there's current men's British number one Steve Lewis; a former track official called Nick noting down on a clipboard who's cleared what on which attempt; and a video analyst filming it all for instant playback.

The rest of the coaches are in the front row, side-on to the vault runway so they can see approach, take-off and clearance. Team Dennison moves 14 rows further back. "You can see much better from up here," says Rippon, his feet bouncing and hands grabbing his knees as the tension ratchets up.

Dennison stands on the runway, the bar at 4.30 metres, pole resting on her shoulder. "Now I start reaching for the beta-blockers," says Rippon. He shifts forward in his seat and glugs from a water bottle. "Watch the wind reading," he mutters. "Come on, Kate. Don't mess about with your grip..."

Dennison sprints down the runway, plants, leaps, rotates and clears. Rippon is on his feet even as she lands. "KATE!" he yells. He waves his arms furiously and points up at the giant screen, wanting her to watch and learn from the replay.

The video camera is passed to him. He touches the screen and watches four or five times before dashing down the steps. Dennison jogs over and Rippon shouts across the five metre-wide gap that separates them.

The vital information? He wants the stands that support the bar to be moved five centimetres closer to the take-off. Each athlete can adjust the position to suit the parabola of their jump, and Rippon has spotted that Dennison is reaching her maximum height early. Dennison nods and walks slowly back to her kit-bag.

The adrenaline fizzing through Rippon is patently obvious. As Dennison gets ready for her next attempt he has his arms folded tight, hands squeezed under his armpits. "Get up! GET UP!" he shouts, as she drives up towards the bar, rotates and skims clear again.

"This is the worst part," he says, watching the replay again and again. "As a coach you feel helpless, but you have to stay logical. A final like this is a game of chess. There are so many variables, so many tiny things you can change."

Each coach goes through the same process. They stand rigid as their athlete vaults, watch the giant screen and then bellow instructions and adjustments.

The crowd go wild for German favourite Anna Battke. "She hasn't got a chance," whispers Steve. "She told her coach that she'd had a dream last month, where she failed at every competition until the Worlds and then won the gold medal." He shakes his head. "She's got the first part right, anyway."

Battke crashes through the bar. A few minutes later she is out.

"If Kate can finish in the top eight, that would be brilliant," says Rippon. "That would get her an invite to the meet in Zurich next week, and maybe Brussels." Nick scans the list of clearances and calculates overall positions on countback. Dennison is in seventh. "Prize money!" beams Steve.

The rest of the stadium goes bananas as Usain Bolt appears for the 100m medal ceremony, and the pole vault competition is put on temporary hold. The coaches talk among themselves. Do they all get on? "Yup. We sit together, we travel together."

And the athletes - do any of them try to put their rivals off? "Never. They're competing against gravity, as much as each other. Whoever beats gravity wins."

The competition restarts. Vaulter after vaulter fails. Russia's Tatyana Polnova rolls away from the metre-deep landing bed, clutching her bloodied nose. "She's broken that," says Steve, grimly.

Dennison waits for her first attempt at 4.55m, just three centimetres below her British record. If she clears this, she'll be guaranteed to finish in the top eight - a big achievement in her first major final.

"GO ON DENNO!" bellow the four men, clapping rhythmically as she sprints down the runway. The bar crashes down.

Rippon sits back down with a grimace. "No! That's a big missed opportunity." Now it's Lewis's turn to shout at Dennison. Having been deputed to watch her take-off stride, he's spotted that she was leaning back a fraction as she came in. The momentum that she lost cost her the clearance.

In the background is the familiar figure of double Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva, lying by her poles. Having cleared 4.70m in her warm-up, she is yet to enter the competition. Face hidden under a white cap, swathed in a red Russia tracksuit, she appears to be asleep.

Dennison steps into position again, her hands checking the glue on the grip and then her fingers. "Come on..." mutters Rippon, and then whoops with delight as she goes clear.

"Rock on!" The adrenaline is surging through him again. "I'd take that!" he shouts at Lewis. "Start a rain dance!"

The bar goes up to 4.65m, seven centimetres higher than Dennison has ever cleared before.



Rippon has a list in his hand which details which of the eight poles that Kate has with her she should use at each height. While each pole is the same length, the grips are in different places. There is also variation in how much flex each pole gives.

At this height, the plan is to use a stiffer pole to give her maximum elevation. Dennison, however, has decided to stick with a softer one, and Rippon is extremely agitated. "She's not convinced she needs the stiffer one," he scowls.

Lewis too looks anxious. "Come on Kate!" he shouts. Dennison tears down the track and then, just before planting the pole, drops it and runs through onto the mat.

"DON'T DO THAT!" roars Rippon. He runs down the steps and leans over the advertising hoardings. "Come on!" he bellows, clenching his fist at Dennison's back.

He is now both fuming and highly stressed. "She is not going to get it on that pole," he tells Lewis angrily. "If I could get close to her, I'd get right up here. Now is the time she has to gamble."

Dennison tries again. Again she fails to get even close to the bar. Without looking up at her coach, she walks back to her bag and flops down, covering her legs with a towel.

Rippon slumps back in his seat. "She's going to do what she wants," he warns Lewis. "I can tell you what's going to happen - she's going to blow through that third jump, and then say she should have used the other pole."

Lewis nods. "She's not even looking," he says.

Rippon shakes his head. "She doesn't want to look." The adrenaline has dumped him right back down. "She's gone. I think she's achieved whatever her personal goal was."

When Dennison rises for her final attempt, so does the entire support team. Rippon is suddenly back up, the testosterone surging. "LET'S GO KATE!" he shouts, his voice hoarse.

It is no use. She gets only halfway through her vault before abandoning. The four men stay on their feet, now applauding their beaten charge.

There is pride on Rippon's face, along with the disappointment. Dennison has ended in seventh. A few minutes later she is boosted a place as IIsinbayeva fails to clear a single mark and finishes a shock last.

As the drama dies down, Rippon becomes more reflective. He knows that his athlete has done well. She has added 18cm to her personal best in a year, broken the British record eight times indoors and outdoors and continued the progression that he hopes will have her in medal contention by London 2012.

"It takes a special person to stand out there and go through what she has," he says. "It's impossible to overstate how much courage and commitment and concentration it takes to do that."

He waves at Dennison as she trudges out of the arena. When she finally looks up he jabs at his ankle and wobbles his hand from side to side. She gives him the thumbs-up and walks on. "I was worried she'd hurt her Achilles again," he explains.

Tomorrow he will upload the video footage to his laptop and hers. They will go through it separately and then come together to share thoughts and analyse.

"I'm up at 6.30am," he grins, as I head off. "Where's the bloke who sells beer?"

[dj]

hey

congrats to jan, jan and Chelsea.. good job homer!! Bumping into you two the other day at the stadium was special.. i'll keep in touch..

looked like Isi and Petrov needed to be using the "6 Step Chart" and the adjustments to “speed of the day = the grip of the day"...

i have noticed that a lot of European jumpers (especially the men) use a 6 step "check" BUT don't move it according to speed. It will be interesting to see the results of their jumping and adjustments to conditions…

dj

[Bubba PV]

Here's the video of the winning jump and Issy's final miss. Chelsea is with the top three at the end. Bubba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyBuedbqouM

[BruceFlorman]

Here's my translation of the promised interview with Isi from the RusAthletics.com website. Those who don't like her tactics or her attitude are unlikely to be much appeased.

I wouldn’t be Isinbaeva if quit!
18.08.2009

Double Olympic champion and world record holder in the women’s pole vault, Yelena Isinbaeva, despite her failure in Berlin, found the strength to describe how she feels.

- Lena, can you recollect your feelings now, reconstruct the event?
- When I was lying for a long time, everything was fine. I mentally pictured how I would jump, how all would be normal. I got up and entered at 4 m 75 cm, and during my run, I hooked my left foot on my right as if to braid them, and I stumbled. I was simply surprised by this, because it had never happened to me. As if someone had specifically sat and bound my legs together. But there wasn’t time to stop and do my takeoff run over. Consequently, I blew off one attempt. Then I confidently decided to pass the second and third attempts from 4.75 to 4.80, which is commonplace for me. I had done this in Athens and on many occasions. I’ve easily jumped 4 80. This is an elementary height for me. Absolutely nothing to it. And again I didn’t make it – a little something with my left hand didn’t come out right.

- Like you were bewitched.
- Really, to me something otherworldly happened. I cannot describe it.

- And then your last hope was ruined.
- Yes. On my third attempt. I had a feeling about how I’d jump. I know myself, I know these feelings before a third attempt, when everything is concentrated inside. And when the bar fell, I thought: “My God, this can’t be. This isn’t me. I’m not here.” It seemed to me that I’d stand up, and it would turn out that I was mistaken, that I’d have one more attempt left, that I’d counted them wrong. But I stood up and realized that the “limit” had been reached.

- In those seconds, probably it was very frightening to sense the reality?
- Very frightening. I both understood and didn’t understand what had happened.

- What’s in your soul now?
- In my soul? It’s empty. And in my head, so far, nothing fits. How is it that in 27 years, after all the victories, all the records, I have done nothing for the world championships in Berlin? What’s more, I was fully focused on victory, and believed in my victory, because today everything was prepared in order to win. And not simply to win, but with a high result.

- What prevented it?
- At this moment I can’t analyze what went wrong. I have no answer for this question. In warm-ups I cleared the height of 4 70 without any problems.

- Maybe an emotional lapse?
- My whole point is that I haven’t had any psychological or emotional problems, or technical ones either. My injury is healed and my leg doesn’t bother me. Everything is excellent, there is nothing interfering. Apparently such is fate.

- Lena, even computers have failures, and you’re not made of iron.
- Everyone has now seen that I’m not a mechanical clockwork bear. It was time to lose. When you’re first all the time, and always breaking records, perhaps one begins to relax inside, to think it will go on that way, and you start to depend on it. Today I was hit on the head and it was made clear that you need to fully concentrate on the sport, not being distracted by anything else.

- And by what have you been distracted?
- You must understand! I’m a young girl. I’m not yet married, and naturally, I want a personal life, something else, a full life! Now I understand that I must devote my remaining four years to pole vaulting. I must be totally focused; the sport must occupy the first place in my life. Indeed, if you betray the sport, it will not forgive you.

- Maybe you burnt out while waiting for over an hour and a half?
- It’s definitely hard to lie down and wait; the other girls have already started to compete, and entered into this state. But I have to get myself started differently. This is hard. But over the past four years, I’ve gotten used to waiting.

- And was it a mistake to pass 4.65?
- No. Tactically I did everything right. I see no sense in trying to compete with the girls at that height. It would be humiliation to jump below my level. And passing two attempts from 4.75 to 4.80 was justified. For me it’s better to lose with a “baranka” (zero), than to win a medal jumping 4.65.

- By doing so, thus Rogowska improved?
- She didn’t improve. Her personal best is 4 m 86 cm. Today she was simply lucky that I lost.

- Perhaps it would have been worthwhile to skip the season?
- Vitaly Afanasevich and I thought about it, but I have some new sponsors, so it’s the first year I’ve worked with them. They greatly believe in me, and I greatly believe in them.

- But if you had not had sponsorship obligations?
- No, not the World Championships. Possibly other competitions.

- Every defeat is an opportunity to change oneself.
- Certainly my rise began after the very embarrassing loss to Svetlana Feofanova in the 2003 World Championships in Paris. After such an awful defeat today, I’ll analyze everything; reexamine my entire life for the remaining 3-4 years. I’ll draw the correct conclusions.

- Will you change your tactics after this defeat?
- No, I’ll press my rivals as usual.

- And no thoughts of quitting have flickered through your mind?
- I wouldn’t be Isinbaeva if I quit.

Valentina Krasnykh exclusively for Rusathletics.com