Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia in action during the Pole Vault (© Getty Images)
The new international indoor meet which takes place in the Czech capital on Thursday 26 February has announced a further star name, and they get no finer than the 2008 World Athlete of the Year, Russian Pole Vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva.
The World, Olympic and European champion and multiple World record breaker will try to show her abilities in her last competition of the indoor season in new modern 02 arena.
The hall has already witnessed NHL ice-hockey games, top rock-concerts among others but athletics will be held there for first time. The capacity crowd for a track meet will be at around 15,000. The brand new 200m six lane track was built outside of Prague in one of storage halls in the last months. Because of the packed entertainment programme in the hall there will be only one test with installing the track which will take place in early February. The second time will be for the meet itself.
“I already competed in the past in Czech Republic, in Prague and also two times in Ostrava,” said Isinbayeva, “so I would be happy to come back. And it is good for our sport when new events are emerging and especially in such beautiful city as Prague. I’m really looking forward to coming and breaking some record. When everything goes well it could be close to five metres."
In total it will be Isinbayeva’s sixth appearance in the country, the last one was when winning Ostrava Golden Spike in 2007.
Other stars announced for the meet are Dayron Robles in the 60m Hurdles, Pamela Jelimo with a 1000m World indoor record attempt, Blanka Vlasic in the High Jump, and Olympic sprint hurdles winner Dawn Harper in the 60m Hurdles. Also competing is former World champion Kim Collins in the 60m, Ibrahim Camejo, Cuba’s Beijing bronze winner in Long Jump, Sudan’s World Indoor champion Abubaker Kaki at 800m and Kenyan distance stars Paul Kipsiele Koech and Daniel Kipchirchir Komen at 5000m.
Alfons Juck for the IAAF
