Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own indoor world record in the women's pole vault on Saturday, clearing 4.95m at the "Pole Vault Stars" event.
The 25-year-old Olympic and world champion improved on her previous record of 4.93m, set at this event last year.
At the annual event, organized by pole vault great Sergei Bubka, Isinbayeva beat the rest of the field with a jump of 4.87m. She then moved the bar to 4.94m -- a mark the Russian failed to clear at two events last season.
PHOTO: EPA
Isinbayeva missed two attempts at that height and then raised the bar by 1cm for her last attempt.
After her most successful season in 2005, when she set four indoor and five outdoor world records, Isinbayeva switched to a new coach and struggled through the last two seasons.
She made 14 attempts last season to improve her 5.01m world outdoor record set at the world championships in Helsinki in 2005.
It was Isinbayeva's 21st world record and 10th indoor record.
■ INDOOR 2 MILES
AP, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND
Kenenisa Bekele set a world record for the indoor 2 miles (3.2km) when he ran 8 minutes, 4.35 seconds at the Norwich Union Grand Prix on Saturday.
The Ethiopian took 0.34 off the mark of 8:04.69 run by countryman Haile Gebrselassie and set at the same National Indoor Arena in February 2003.
"It was not easy but I knew I could do it," said Bekele, who was chased for most of the race by Kenya's Paul Koech but produced a fast final lap to run away from the field.
"Koech was very close but I knew I had a fast finish in me," Bekele said.
Bekele, who has broken Gebrselassie's 2,000m and 5,000m indoor marks in Birmingham, went close to breaking his countryman's 2-mile mark last year.
"It is great here in Birmingham and it helped me with the fast time today," said the Ethiopian, who collected a check for US$30,000 for beating the mark.
Koech finished second in 8:06.48 and another Kenyan, Abraham Chebii, was a long way back third in 8:13.28.
■ TOKYO MARATHON
AP, TOKYO
Switzerland's Viktor Rothlin won the Tokyo Marathon yesterday, surging into the lead in the second half of the race.
Marloon Herrera was crying — happy tears. With Cuba trailing in the fifth inning of its Little League World Series (LLWS) opener on Thursday, Herrera lined a two-run double to give his team the lead. When the Czech Republic, representing Europe-Africa, made a pitching change, he ran over to give his third base coach a hug. Cuba went on to win 4-1. It was the first game at this year’s tournament for both sides, but it was also the beginning of Cuba’s second appearance in the series ever — and it was emotional. “You breathe baseball in Cuba,” manager Everaldo Machado said on
Taiwan on Friday beat Australia 11-0 at the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Taiwan are represented at the tournament by Taoyuan’s Gueishan Elementary School, who won the Asia-Pacific regional tournament to earn the trip to the US. Australia are represented by the Hills Red team from Sydney. Taiwan advanced to a game tomorrow against Santa Clara, representing Cuba, who won 4-1 against the Czech Republic’s Brno, the Europe-Africa regional qualifiers. Australian starter Sayre Howick had a tough time controlling his pitches at Volunteer Stadium, one of which allowed Taiwan to open their account. They scored six in the inning and
World Boxing, an international amateur boxing organization formed last year after a breakdown in relations between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Boxing Association (IBA), has announced the admission of Taiwan, along with four other nations, into its growing list of members. In a statement released on its Web site on Friday, the Swiss- based organization said that in addition to Taiwan, admitted as Chinese Taipei, Bhutan, Ecuador, Fiji and Pakistan have also become members. The new members all have well-rounded national and international boxing programs as well as transparency in the leadership and management of their national boxing programs,
COOLED DOWN: Du Plessis apologized after the fight for comments about his Nigerian-born opponent, after Adesanya said he planned to take the belt back to Africa South African Dricus du Plessis yesterday took a flurry of body hits across four rounds before defeating Israel Adesanya by submission to retain his middleweight championship at UFC 305. After scoring some early takedowns, Du Plessis (22-2) had to withstand a flurry of body strikes from Adesanya through the middle rounds, which appeared to be taking a toll on the 30-year-old South African as the fight progressed. However, a left hook followed by three rights helped bring Adesanya down, giving Du Plessis the opening he wanted as he swiftly got the choke hold that forced the Nigerian-born New Zealander to tap out