In Glasgow last month Feofanova did indeed put the bar up to 4.82 after getting her 4.76 record and had three pretty good attempts at the height. In Birmingham last night, it was late, 10.05pm, the meeting had finished, the crowd were departing, the BBC were over-running their schedules (the meeting was being shown live) whilst the women's triple jump and pole vault were finishing. Not the ideal situation for a WR attempt. Feofanova's 4.77 was the last thing the TV coverage showed, they had about 30 seconds of preview for the forthcoming world indoor championships from Roger Black and Brendan Foster, and that was it.
You can't really blame Feofanova for not trying higher on this occasion. Matthew Fraser Moat AW Subs offer: http://www.athletics-weekly.com/tandflist.htm -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Roger Ruth Sent: 22 February 2003 04:51 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: t-and-f: WPV Record Earlier today, Kebba posted the subject line, Birmingham: W PV WR - 4.77, without additional details. This would have referred to Svetlana Feofanova's winning mark at this meet. In a later exchange on the VaultCanada mailing list, I took exception to the description of this result, by VaultnGus, as a "World Record." Specifically, Sorry, Gus. The WPV World Record is 4.81 by Stacy Dragila at Palo Alto on 9 June 2001. For the last two years, the IAAF has done its best to screw up the distinction between indoor and outdoor records by permitting indoor marks to supercede outdoor marks as "absolute" world records, but there's nothing in that to make Feofanova's 4.77 more than an "Indoor World Record," or, in historical terms, "World Indoor Best." Feofanova seems far more interested in the financial benefits of raising her PB by a centimeter, than by vaulting the best she can at any time in her career. Did she try any height after bettering her indoor best in the Birmingham meet? I think the test will come when/if she has to look at a minimum 5cm raise when she no longer is the only vaulter left in a competition. I also think Dragila is far more experienced in rising to that challenge. My money's on Stacy (but, of course, those are only Canadian dollars, at par with 65 cents U.S.). My two cents' worth (1.32 cents U.S.). Cheers
