Zurich

By LEN JOHNSON

Sometimes you wonder what goes through an athlete's mind, if indeed anything does at all.

What, for example, went through Yelena Isinbayeva's mind when she took three attempts to win the pole vault in Zurich tonight, remain in contention for the Golden League jackpot, and break her own world record.

And what, for example, went through her mind when she failed to clear a height at the world championships in Berlin just 11 days earlier. She couldn't get a height to save her skin in three attempts; in three jumps at the Letzigrund Isinbayeva jumped out of her skin to a new world record 5.06 metres _ the 15th outdoor record of her career and the 27th overall.

In Berlin, Isinbayeva's coach Vitaliy Petrov was reduced to yelling advice to her over the fence. He might as well have thrown a drowning man a matchstick. In Zurich, he was hugging her with delight across the same barrier.

When she arrived in Zurich, Isinbayeva told a press conference that she had been completely fit in Berlin, just that her mind had not been there. In retrospect, victories and records had been coming too easily she thought and had lost their value. She will never, of course, get the world championships gold medal back _ that went deservedly to the best woman that night and Zurich runner-up, Anna Rogowska of Poland _ but she did underline that the defeat is likely to be a minor hiccup, not a major turn of fortunes.

Ironically, while Isinbayeva celebrated her world record with a lap of the track, another live jackpot contender, Kenenisa Bekele, was waiting to start the 5000 metres. Coming off his distance double in Berlin, Bekele may have been forgiven for being a little jaded. Indeed, left on his own when the second pacemaker pulled out at 3000 metres in 7:40.73, Bekele did look a little bit jaded.

Remarkably, the man who would look as if he might challenge Bekele in the final stages was buried mid-pack at that stage, just about to start a charge that would take him briefly into second place in the final 400 metres and would lead to a 20-second personal best and new US record 12:56.27.

Bekele is not a champion for nothing, however. He accelerated when it mattered in the last lap to win by almost three seconds in 12:52.32. Edwin Soi of Kenya pushed back past Ritzenhein to take second in 12:55.03.

Ritzenhein became the first non-African to break 13 minutes since Craig Mottram did so at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games and the first non-African to join the club since Mottram did so for the first time in London in 2004.

Sanya Richards won the 400 metres to also remain in contention for at least a one=third share of the $US1million jackpot, but Kerron Stewart went out when she was beaten by Carmelita Jeter of the US in the women's 100. Jeter used a jet-like start to defeat not only world champs silver medallist Stewart but also her Jamaican teammate and world champion Shelly Ann Fraser.

Victory and defeat in Berlin also had a great impact on some of the competitions here. Richards, who finally got the championships' monkey off her back with her win in the 400, here faced 200 metres champion Allyson Felix.

A year ago, Felix might have threatened Richards in this type of one-off race. But Richard confidently ran her own race plan, accelerating with 180 left to draw level with the faster-starting Felix and then blasting away from her down the straight to win in 48.94, fastest in the world this year.

And in the high jump, Blanka Vlasic cleared 2.01 at the first attempt to defeat Ariane Friedrich, who cluttered into that height at her third and final attempt. Friedrich has cleared 2.01 or better five times in the outdoor season, including a 2.06 at the Berlin golden meeting in June. But she looked a million miles from it here.

There were further highlights aplenty _ Andreas Thorkildsen's 91.28 in the javelin, Brigitte Foster-Hylton's 12.48 in the women's 100 hurdles, Ezekiel Kemboi's brave but unsuccessful attempt to go under eight minutes in the steeple . . .

. . . oh, and did I mention Usain Bolt? For almost 90 metres Asafa Powell headed him in the 100 before he prevailed 9.81 to 9.88. Then he produced a superb anchor leg to bring Jamaica home ahead of the USA in the 4x100 metres relay. He was also pulled around the stadium in a rickshaw in a pre-meeting parade of champions which verged on the corny, but somehow worked. Bolt got out of the rickshaw mid-way round and pulled the driver along for 50 metres or so.

No wonder he ran only 9.81!


 

Len Johnson was The Melbourne Age athletics writer for over 20 years, covering five Olympics, 10 world championships and five Commonwealth Games. He is the author of The Landy Era, From Nowhere to the Top of the World, and a former national class distance runner (2.19.32 marathon) who trained with Chris Wardlaw and Robert de Castella.