Yelena Isinbayeva, the recordwoman

Yelena Isinbayeva broke the pole vault world record for the second time this month, vaulting 5.04m in Monaco. She is the first athlete this year to break a world record twice. Her last world record before 2008 dates to 2005.

It was the seventh time that an athletics world record has been broken in 2008. Isinbayeva improved the world record for the 15th time. Sergey Bubka improved the men’s pole vault world record 17 times in his career.

Athletics World record improvements in 2008

Date / Event / Name / Performance

29 Jul 2008 Women’s Pole Vault Yelena Isinbayeva Russia 5.04 Monaco, MON
11 Jul 2008 Women’s Pole Vault Yelena Isinbayeva Russia 5.03 Rome, ITA
12 Jun 2008 Men’s 110m Hurdles Dayron Robles Cuba 12.87 Ostrava, CZE
08 Jun 2008 Men’s 20km Walk Sergey Morozov Russia 1:16:43 Saransk, RUS
06 Jun 2008 Women’s 5000m Tirunesh Dibaba Ethiopia 14:11.15 Oslo, NOR
01 Jun 2008 Men’s 100m Usain Bolt Jamaica 9.72 New York, NY, USA
11 May 2008 Men’s 50km Walk Denis Nizhegorodov Russia 3:34:14 Cheboksary, RUS