Yelena leaps higher

Russia's pole-vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva poses gleefully after she set a new world record at the Zurich Golden League meet on Friday. Photo: AFP

Pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva banished her World Championships blues by setting a new world record of 5.06 metres on Friday while sprint king Usain Bolt overcame a "shaky" start to win the 100m.
Isinbayeva, who failed with all three attempts as arch-rival Anna Rogowska of Poland claimed gold at the recently-concluded worlds in Berlin, bettered her previous best mark of 5.05m set at the Beijing Olympics.
"Now I understand why there was that defeat in Berlin -- to have this amazing result," the Russian said before a 26,000-capacity crowd at the fifth of the six-leg Golden League series. "It's like a dream, it's hard to believe."
Isinbayeva, who still has three competitions to come before season's end, had admitted to being "over-confident" going into the world championships which finished last weekend.
Eight others of the 14 newly-crowned world champions also won their races at the Golden League meet.
Importantly, 400m specialist Sanya Richards and men's 5000-10,000m double champion Kenenisa Bekele claimed victories to remain in contention, along with Isinbayeva, for the one-million-dollar jackpot that goes to the athlete who wins their discipline at all six Golden League meets.
In the women's 100m, however, Jamaican Kerron Stewart lost out to American world bronze medalist Carmelita Jeter (10.86sec) for her first defeat on the circuit this season.
Richards won the 400m in a world lead of 48.94sec, benefiting from a fantastic start to leave a leaden-footed Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu in her tracks with 200m specialist Allyson Felix finishing second, 0.89sec off her compatriot.
There was no revenge for Jeremy Wariner over world champion Lashawn Merritt, the latter stretching US dominance over the men's 400m here to 21 years with a comprehensive 44.21sec win.
Blanka Vlasic repeated her world success with an easy win in the women's high jump, the Croatian clearing 2.01m to finish ahead of Russian Anna Chicherova and American Chaunte Howard.
Other world champions to notch victories were Bahrain's Maryam Jamal (1500m), Jamaican Brigitte Foster-Hylton (100m hurdles), Kenyan Ezekiel Kemboi (3000m steeplechase) and Andreas Thorkildsen (javelin).
Aside from Rogowska in the pole vault, there were four others who failed to reproduce their Berlin heroics.
Yusuf Kamel could only finish fourth in the 1500m won by Kenyan Augustine Choge. Dwight Thomas set a national Jamaican record of 13.16sec to win the 110m hurdles with surprise Barbadian world champion Ryan Brathwaite in third.
South African 800m world champion Mbulaeni Mulaudzi finished third and Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser could only manage fourth in the women's 100m.