Russia’s Sevetlana Feofanova says the poor placement of the pole vault area not only prevented her from doing well at the London Olympics, but also led to a serious injury.
“It was a strange Olympics for me as it ended without actually being able to begin,” Feofanova told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper. “I was in good shape and should’ve jumped 4.80-4.85 meters there.”“I’m sure that the pole vault area was placed wrongly. I only wish we had good lawyers,” she added.The Russian, who has silver from Athens 2004 and bronze from Beijing 2008 on her tally, was among the medal hopefuls in London as well. But she couldn’t even make it through qualification, blaming the wind, blowing right in the face, for the weak result. “And the wind was very strong and gusting, there were clouds over the stadium and the umbrellas were flying on the training pitch,” the 32-year-old remembered. “Believe me, it’s not the type of wind you can ignore and keep competing.”“For my height and weight such conditions are just fatal, which proved itself in no time,” she added. Feofanova felt a pain in the knee after the landing and consulted the doctors, with both British and Russian national team specialist saying it’s nothing serious. But another examination on her return to Moscow revealed that the athlete had suffered a triple fracture. Jennifer Suhr of the US managed to adjust to the difficult conditions in London better than the others as she cruised to gold with a rather average result of 4.75 meters. Yarisley Silva of Cuba took silver, while favorite and world record holder (5.06m), Elena Isinbayeva of Russia settled for the bronze medal.