Yelena plans packed year
29 Jan 2010Yelena is planning a tough season of competition for 2010 – both indoors and out.
She will kick off the new campaign at the Russian Winter meeting – the fourth of ten IAAF Indoor Permit meetings in 2010 – on February 7 in Moscow.
The women’s pole vault is likely to be the highlight of the meeting, not least because Yelena will be cheered on by her passionate home fans.
The standard of competition is also expected to be high as the world record holder will come up against other top Russians including former world indoor and outdoor champion, Svetlana Feofanova, who is on the comeback trail after an injury-shortened 2009, and Yuliya Golubchikova, the European indoor champion.
Two-time world outdoor silver medallist Monika Pyrek of Poland is also due to participate.
On March 6 Yelena will compete at the Scepter Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine.
The meeting – staged annually in the great men’s pole vault star Sergey Bubka’s home city – is one of Yelena’s favourites as she has set new world records there in each of the last six years.
In fact, last year she broke the record twice in Donetsk, including the present world best mark of 5.00m.
The following week Yelena will attempt to capture another title at the 13th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, which is being staged from March 12 to 14.
Yelena said: “My first competition will the Russian Winter in Moscow. It will be the first time I’ve performed in front of a home crowd indoors for a very long time. We decided to have a short competition schedule indoors so I can recover better, because 2009 was hard for me and the plan is to stay fresh for each competition.”
Yelena’s outdoor campaign is presently based around the new IAAF Diamond League as well as the European Championships in Barcelona, which are being held from July 26 to August 1.
Yelena shared the prize with American sprinter Sanya Richard and Kenyan distance runner Kenenisa Bekele last year, saying she would use some of the windfall to provide gifts for an orphanage in her native Vologograd.
So far, Yelena has decided to take part in eight of the 14 IAAF Diamond League meetings at Doha (May 14), Shanghai (May 23), Rome (June 10), Eugene, USA (July 3), Gateshead, UK (July 10), Monte Carlo (July 22), Stockholm (August 6) and Zürich (August 19) – it was at the same Swiss meeting in 2009 that she set the current outdoor world record of 5.06m.
With 27 world records (15 outdoor and 12 indoor) already under her belt, Yelena is now closing in on the incredible mark of 35 world records set by Bubka, who dominated the men’s pole vault in the 1980s and 90s.
She said: “There are nine more remaining, and I’m really patient. It could be something special to get 36. I’m sure that no-one after me will repeat it, nowhere.”
Yelena’s full schedule for 2010:
INDOOR
February 7 – Russian Winter meeting, Moscow.
March 6 – Scepter Pole Vault Stars, Donetsk, Ukraine.
March 12-14 – IAAF World Indoor Championships, Doha, Qatar.
OUTDOOR
May 14 – I AAF Diamond League, Doha, Qatar.
May 23 – IAAF Diamond League, Shanghai, China.
June 10 – IAAF Diamond League, Golden Gala Rome, Italy.
July 3 – IAAF Diamond League, Eugene, USA.
July 10 – IAAF Diamond League, Gateshead, UK.
July 22 – IAAF Diamond League, Monte Carlo, Monaco.
July 28 – European Championships, Barcelona, Spain, Qualification.
July 30 – European Championships, Barcelona, Spain, Final.
August 6 – IAAF Diamond League, DN-galan Stockholm, Sweden.
August 19 – IAAF Diamond League, Weltklasse Zürich, Switzerland.
