Pole-vaulting competition in Beijing Summer Games witnessed the tumbling of another world record by Russian Yelena Isinbayeva. She was expected to defend her gold medal of 2004 Athens Summer Games. On the tenth day of Beijing Summer Games, this Russian beauty broke her own world record of 5.04m by vaulting 5.05m in the pole vault final event. Her challengers in the competition were no close to her. Her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova won the bronze medal by vaulting 4.75m. Silver medal winner Jennifer Stuczynski of the US was behind Isinbayeva by 25cm.

The period between 2003-2008 has been really special for Yelena Isinbayeva. Her vault of 5.05m signified her own-record breaking performance for 16 times. It was on July 13, 2003 when she first vaulted 4.82m to beat the world record of 4.81m (made my the US pole-vaulter Stacy Dragila). Since then she has grown a habit to break her own record. She touched the 5.00m-mark for the first time in 2005. She has bettered on her pole-vaulting height for 3 times in 2008. It was on July 11, 2008 she touched 5.03m. Later on July 29 in the same year, she broke that record by vaulting 5.04m.

Isinbayeva’s record-breaking streak reminds me of Sergey Bubka, a retired Ukrainian pole-vaulter (until 1991, he represented the Soviet Union). He holds both the current outdoor world record and indoor world record. He set his outdoor world record by vaulting 6.14m in 1994 and indoor world record by vaulting 6.15m in 1993. Throughout his career, Bubka broke the world record for men’s pole-vaulting 35 times. He started his record-breaking streak in 1984 when he vaulted 5.81m. Bubka’s performance in the Summer Games has not been that impressive. He won only 1 gold medal (in 1988 Seoul Summer Games) in the history of Summer Games.