Agence France-Presse
Cheboksary (Russia), June 22: Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva had nearly abandoned all hope of ending her stellar career with a third Olympic gold in Rio, and had said that she would hang up her spikes at a far less glamourous event on the banks of the Volga.
But the IOC’s announcement Tuesday that Russian athletes who are individually screened by the IAAF, might be allowed to compete in Rio under Russia’s flag has revived the two-time Olympic champion’s Rio dreams.
“Today I have to admit that deep down there is hope,” Isinbayeva told reporters after winning the Russian championship in Cheboksary with a 4.90-metre vault. “It hasn’t died completely.”
The crowd-pleasing athlete, 34, asked for the bar to be raised to 5.07m to the rhythmic clapping of an ecstatic crowd, in an attempt to beat the 5.06m world record she set in 2009.
Isinbayeva missed but celebrated her national championship victory with a backflip on the landing area in what was her first official competition since 2013 due to giving birth to a daughter in 2014.
“Now it means that the end of my career, I hope, will be in Rio,” stated the vault tsarina. “I was desperate even yesterday, but I’m very optimistic today.”
Isinbayeva, who has always steered clear from doping scandals, has often found herself surrounded with few rivals who could challenge her dominance in the sport.
She reminded her foreign opponents with her performance here that her reign is not over. “The main thing we should all be happy about is that Yelena Isinbayeva has the world’s best result of the season. A big hello from Russia to my rivals,” she said, waving to the cameras.
Isinbayeva is also the queen bee of Russian athletics, forging her reputation as a fierce competitor with a fiery character and sharp tongue.
Isinbayeva – who had endorsed IAAF president Sebastian Coe when he ran for the post last year – took a jab Monday at the IAAF, calling the members of its council ‘pricks’ on camera before she smirked and walked away.
