Morris set for tilt at Isinbayeva's pole vault world record

Morris set for tilt at Isinbayeva's pole vault world record

BRUSSELS - American Sandi Morris immediately set her heights high after pole vaulting her way into the history books in Brussels when she became just the third woman ever to pass the mythical five-metre bar.

US pole vaulter Sandi Morris nailed a 5.00m attempt to win the season-ending Diamond League meet on September 9, 2016

Morris nailed a 5.00m attempt to win the season-ending Diamond League meet late Friday and match the feats of Russian world record holder and two-time Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva and fellow American Jennifer Suhr, who has achieved 5.03m vaulting indoors.

"I'm only the third woman in history to do it if you include indoors and outdoors," said Morris, with just her and Russian vaulting icon Isinbayeva having cleared 5m outdoors.

"It's really an honour because it's a mental number. I've jumped into the 5m club, it's just a number to be respected and it's really cool to be in that club."

Hopes Morris might have entertained of competing against Isinbayeva have moved to the backburner as the Russian, prevented from taking part in the Rio Olympics where the American won silver behind Greece's Katerina Stefanidi, has since retired.

Isinbayeva, whose world record stands at 5.06m, couldn't resist leaving the sport with a parting shot at fellow competitors, saying the 2016 gold medallist wouldn't be a fully-fledged champion because they had not competed against her.

"I was hoping to get a chance to jump against her because she is someone I grew up watching, idolising and it would have been really cool to be in competition with her, Jenn Suhr and me," Morris said of Isinbayeva.

"That would have been really awesome. But I have mixed emotions about it after seeing some of her comments.

"But I wanted to think that there was something lost in translation. Just different cultures honestly.

"I still respect her. No hard feelings, and yeah, I wish I could have jumped against her."

On Friday, Morris enjoyed three ambitious attempts at 5.07m, 1cm higher than Isinbayeva's best.

"After I made 5 metres, my coach looked at me and said 'do you want to stop or take three attempts at the world record?' And I said are you kidding, I'm going to take these three attempts because if I put it together and I make the bar I'll be really happy that I attempted it," she said.

"It wasn't there tonight and I also landed on the crossbar on my last attempt so my back is going to be bruised but it's good to have those battle injuries."

Morris admitted that after a competition during which she made 15 vaults, at least five or six more than normal, she knew it was ambitious.

"I didn't think I had the perfect jump in me after that," she acknowledged.

"It is a good thing that I didn't break the world record tonight since I have next year to go for.

"If you automatically achieve all your goals right off the bat, what will you have to go for. It gives me a lot of motivation for next season."

Morris said that she and her coach Bryan Compton would instigate a series of small rectifications for the 2017 season when the world championships will be held in London in August.

"My next step next season is to get on the next link of poles. Currently they're 4.45m-linked poles and I want to get on 4.60s and inch my grip up a bit," she said.

"Tiny changes at a time and next season I think I have it (world record attempt) in me."

More impressive for Morris was that she hit form despite suffering a hairline fracture of her wrist while competing in Ostrava in May.

She followed her medical team's advice to the letter and six weeks after sustaining the operation was back in competition at the US Olympic trials and then pain-free at the Rio Games.

"In life you're going to have moments when you're so close to something you really really want, like in Rio when I barely missed gold," said Morris.

"But I think life has a way of balancing itself and I couldn't have asked for more tonight.

"You win some and lose some. You just have to appreciate what you win and everything good that happens. It was amazing."

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