Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva broke the world indoor pole vault record by clearing 4.95 meters at the Sergei Bubka invitational meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Saturday.
The Russian beat her own mark of 4.93 set in the same competition organized by the great Ukrainian pole vaulter in his home town a year ago.
It was the third consecutive year in which she improved on the indoor record.
Isinbayeva twice failed to clear 4.94 before raising the bar one centimeter to set her 21st world record, indoor and outdoor.
"I'm really happy with my performance here because it has been a long time, 12 months to be exact, since I last broke the world record," the 25-year-old told reporters.
Isinbayeva became the first woman to break the outdoor five meters barrier in July 2005 in London before vaulting 5.01 at the world championships in Helsinki the following month.
In Birmingham, England, Kenenisa Bekele set a world record for the indoor two miles and Bernard Lagat made it three wins in three races in his long buildup to the Beijing Olympics.
Carolina Kluft, the world's best all-round woman athlete, won an improvised track "tri-athlon" at the Norwich Union Grand Prix meet on Saturday but Swedish countrywoman Susanna Kallur failed to get close to the world record she set last Sunday.
Bekele has now captured three indoor marks owned by countryman Haile Gebrselassie - all at the same venue. Bekele ran 8 minutes, 4.35 seconds at the National Indoor Arena. The Ethiopian took 0.34 off the mark of 8:04.69 which Gebrselassie set in February 2003.
Koech finished second in 8:06.48 and another Kenyan, Abraham Chebii, was a long way back third in 8:13.28.
Lagat won the 1,500 in Glasgow three weeks ago followed by the Wanamaker Mile at the Millrose Games. He added another 1,500 victory on Saturday in the second fastest time in the world this year ?? 3:35.23. The Kenyan-born American finished strongly to stay clear of Daniel Komen who was 1.32 slower.
"This is exactly where I want to be in terms of preparing for Beijing," said Lagat, who is not planning to run at the indoor World Championships in Valencia on March 7-9.
Organizers of the meet set up a mini version of the multi-event heptathlon. Kluft won the long jump with a leap of 6.46 meters and Kelly Sotherton finished first in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.17 seconds. Although Sotherton beat Kluft in the 400 race, the margin of victory wasn't big enough and the Swede totaled the most overall points, 3,072 to the British athlete's 3,054.
Six days after setting a world record for 60 meters hurdles, Kallur coasted to another victory by three meters against a far weaker field.
The Swede, who broke an 18-year-old mark of 7.68 in Karlsruhe, Germany, clocked 7.75.
Source:Xinhua
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