After three years without gold at the World Athletics Championships, Elena Isinbayeva has finally regained her position at the top.
On Sunday, the Russian needed just two jumps to win the pole vault event in Turkey. Isinbayeva set a world record of 5.01 meters last month, but failed to improve on that, failing at 5.02 after ensuring gold with 4.80 meters. It was Isinbayeva's fourth indoor world title in total.“It was very important for me to restore people’s faith in me,” Isinbayeva told the Sport-Express paper afterwards. “Now I take my wins much more seriously than I did a few years ago,” she added.Isinbayeva brought Russia its sole gold medal in Turkey along with three silver medals and six bronze. Team USA topped the overall standings with an amazing 9 golds, leaving Great Britain (3 golds), Ephiopia (2) and Kenya (2) behind. On the final day of the competition, Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar failed in her quest to become the first woman to win five straight world indoor titles, losing to Helen Obiri of Kenya, who came from behind on the final lap to win the women's 3,000 meters. In the men's race, American Bernard Lagat won his third world indoor title, going clear with 100 meters to go to beat Kenyan rivals Augustine Choge and Edwin Soi.In the women's long jump, Brittney Reese jumped a championship record of 7.23 meters on her last attempt to push American teammate Janay Deloach into the silver-medal position with 6.98 meters. Shara Proctor took bronze with a British national record of 6.89 meters. In the women's 800meters, Olympic champion Pamela Jelimo put years of physical problems behind her to take on the whole field from halfway and again dominate from the front as she used to. The Kenyan finished in a world-leading 1 minute 58.83 seconds to beat Natalya Lupo of Ukraine and Erica Moore of the United States.