Isinbayeva and Gillick are European Athletes of the Month – February 2007

24-year-old Isinbayeva set her 20th world pole vault record at the Sergey Bubka meeting known as the „Pole Vault Stars“ in Donyetsk, Ukraine on February 10th with an incredible leap of 4.93m. The dominance of the Russian over her rivals can easily be seen by the fact that she leads the world rankings by a full 17cm over her nearest rival.

Her great aim is to better the number of world records set by her hero Sergey Bubka at 35 and considering Bubka was 38-years-old when he retired, the odds of this a firmly with Isinbayeva.

For 23-year-old Gillick, the move from his home city of Dublin to the hot bed of athletics talent in Loughborough, England under the guidance of new coach Nick Dakin has obviously worked as the Irish athlete blasted his way into a then world leading position over 400m with a new Irish record of 45.91 with his only competition of the month in Dusseldorf on February 6th.

The reigning European Indoor champion over 400m successfully defended his title in Birmingham with yet another Irish record of 45.52 and statistically the top performance of the championships, although that competition took place in March.

January’s European Athlete of the Month Susanna Kallur took the runner-up position behind Isinbayeva with Belgian Tia Hellebaut in third position while Greek Long Jumper Louis Tsatoumas took second place behind Gillick and ahead of Sweden’s Stefan Holm.

Yelena Isinbayeva, RUS, (February 2007 Performances)
(Five competitions, five wins and one world record)
4.82 1 New York NY 2 Feb
4.93 WR 1 Donetsk 10 Feb
4.84 1 Bydgoszcz 14 Feb
4.73 1 Birmingham 17 Feb
4.81 1 Paris 23 Feb

David Gillick, IRL, (February 2007 Performances)
(One competition, one win, and World leading and Irish record performance)
45.91 1rA Düsseldorf 6 Feb

Previous European Athletes of the Month:
Feb-07
David Gillick IRL Yelena Isinbayeva RUS

Jan-07
Ivan Ukhov RUS Susanna Kallur SWE

The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe. European Athletics will name a male and female winner each month and feature the athlete on the European Athletics website.
Selections are based on votes by the public and the media with each counting for 50% of the final vote. The winners will automatically be short listed for the European Athlete of the Year Award.

Source:
European Athletics