Athletics/Indoor Grand Prix: Russian Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva broke her own world indoor women's pole vault record at the Norwich Union Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham last night.
Isinbayeva, who set eight world records indoor and outdoor last year, vaulted 4.88 metres on her second attempt at the indoor international meeting after her compatriot Svetlana Feofanova, the world champion, failed three times at 4.79m.
Last Saturday, Isinbayeva vaulted 4.87m at the Sergei Bubka meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, in her first competition of the season.
She earned $30,000 for her efforts last night.
Britain's Kelly Holmes was in brilliant form as she won the 1,000m for the second successive year.
The double Olympic champion thrilled the 8,000 capacity crowd with a storming victory in two minutes 35.39 seconds. Her front-running performance narrowly missed the fastest time in the world this year by just 0.05, set by Russia's Larisa Chzhao at the beginning of January.
Olympic champion Veronica Campbell made no contest of the women's 200 metres, winning in a year's best of 22.38. It was the sixth fastest time ever and the 25th consecutive win for the Jamaican in an unbeaten five-year streak.
Olympic and world heptathlete champion Carolina Kluft won the women's long jump with her final attempt of 6.66m, while Ethiopia's Meseret Defar narrowly missed breaking the Britids all-comers 3,000m indoor record.
The Olympic 5000m gold medallist recorded her second successive victory at the when she crossed the line in eight minutes 33.05 seconds.
But Defar failed to better fellow Ethiopian Berhane Adere's world record of 8:29.15 seconds, which was her pre-race target.
The African star failed to beat the previous all-comers' record of 8:32.88, run by Romania's Gabriela Szabo on the same track four years ago, then matched 12 months later by Adere.
Britain's Jo Pavey posted a season's fastest time of 8:41.43 with Austria's Susanne Pumper finishing third.
In the last event of the night, Leonard Scott won a farcical 60m which saw three competitors disqualified in the final.
The American clocked a personal best of 6.49, claiming victory ahead of Kim Collins who clocked 6.54, which was also matched by third-placed Maurice Greene.
Britain's Jason Gardener was equal fifth with Jason Smoots of the USA in a time of 6.60.
