Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva thrilled an adoring crowd with her winning jump at Saturday’s Shanghai Golden Grand Prix despite failing in her bid to beat her own world record.
She was one of several Olympic champions who returned to China after winning gold in Beijing for the one-day International Association of Athletics Federation’s (IAAF) post-season event.
Isinbayeva, who won clearing 4.6m, blew kisses to the stands as she climbed off the mat.
PHOTO: AP
The greatest-ever female pole vaulter had said she wanted to make history in Shanghai but warned at a pre-event news conference that fatigue might prevent her from her world record of 5.05m in Beijing.
Beijing bronze-medalist David Oliver, fresh from winning the IAAF World Athletics Final in Stuttgart a week earlier, won the 110m hurdles in 13.25 seconds.
A foot injury had forced Olympic champion Dayron Robles to withdraw at the last minute and hometown hero Liu Xiang stayed away while he recovers from a long-term heel injury.
But Chinese hurdler Xie Wenjun helped restore fans’ faith, placing second with 13.47 seconds.
Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell also stayed away, but their countrymen dominated the men’s 100m with Michael Frater crossing the line at 10.05 seconds and Nesta Carter coming a close second.
Their fellow Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown followed up her Beijing gold medal-winning performance by winning the women’s 100m, with a time of 11.01 seconds, beating American Lauryn Williams by 0.25 seconds.
Jamaican Shericka Williams, who took Olympic silver in the women’s 400m last month, beat Beijing gold medalist Christine Ohuruogu with a time of 50.88 seconds. Ohuruogu placed fourth with a time of 51.31.
In another post-Games rematch, US silver medallist shot putter Christian Cantwell beat Poland’s Tomasz Majewski — who won gold in Beijing — by throwing 20.84m on his sixth throw. Cantwell won by nearly half a meter.
Shaquille O’Neal is staying with TNT Sports on a new contract worth more than US$15 million per year, Front Office Sports reported on Friday. The news means the cast of Inside the NBA is staying together even as TNT is set to license out the show to ESPN starting next season. TNT was the odd network out in the NBA’s recent TV rights negotiations, as NBC and Amazon joined previous rightsholder ESPN in inking deals for basketball games. That left TNT without a need for pregame and postgame NBA shows. In a trade with ESPN, TNT is licensing Inside the NBA to the
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