Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich agreed to finance reconstruction works of a stadium used for trainings by Russia’s double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, her new trainer said.
This month Russia’s pole vault queen Isinbayeva began practicing with her new trainer Yevgeny Trofimov at a stadium in Volgograd, in south European Russia.
“Yelena turned to Roman Abramovich with a request [to finance the reconstruction] and he agreed,” Trofimov said, adding that Abramovich’s people recently visited Volgograd and made all the necessary calculations.
Between November 2005 and March 2011, Isinbayeva’s trainer was Vitaly Petrov, who used to work with Soviet pole vault legend Sergei Bubka, leading him to 35 world records.
Last month, Isinbayeva, who had spent almost nine months out of competitions, made a comeback with the world-leading 4.81 m at the Russian Winter Meeting in Moscow.
The 28-year-old Russian star decided to take an indefinite break in her career after she failed to clear the bar at the Berlin Worlds in 2009 and finished fourth at the world indoors in Qatar in March 2010.
She won her first Olympic gold in Athens in 2004 and became the first woman to clear the historic 5-meter barrier in the pole vault a year later. She has broken 27 world records so far in her incredible career, topping at 5.06 m.
Isinbayeva’s main target over the next couple of seasons will be the London Olympics in the summer of 2012.
VOLGOGRAD, March 24 (RIA Novosti)