Thank you Yelena Isinbayeva.

As events on Day 4 of the Ongoing World Athletics Championship draws to a close, one athlete stole the show and that was local hero Yelena Isinbayeva. Widely regarded as one of the greatest female athletes of all time, Yelena hinted of her decision to retire at the end of this championship hence she was keen to make a good impression in front of her home fans, and she did it in spectacular fashion too.

The 31 year old already has won and achieved all there is in the sport of Pole Vaulting. First woman to jump over 5metres, World record holder at 5.06m, two-times Olympic champion (2004 and 2008), Three time World Champion (2005, 2007, and 2013). This woman has broken the World Record a record 26 times and was only recently joined this year by American Jenn Suhr as the only women to ever jump over 5m. 

After what could be regarded as a complete dominance of the event between 2003-2008, she suffered a dip in form due to injuries and struggled for the next couple of years and decided to take a year off the sports in 2011. Her comeback at the 2012 London Olympics fetched her a bronze with a jump of 4.70, which usually was her starting height in competitions. The American Suhr won the Gold with a 4.75m.

So when the line-up for this year's Championship had both the Olympic Gold and Silver medalist on display, many wondered how the Russian would respond. The trio joined the event at a height of 4.55m and all easily cleared on first attempt. At the next height of 4.65, the three athletes again cleared, with Suhr clearing on first attempt,  Yelena on her second and Yarisley Silva (the Olympic silver medalist) on her third attempt. At that point, the American had the edge. With both Yelena and Suhr clearing the next height of 4.62m on their second attempts, Silva could only clear on her third and final attempt meaning the battle was now a straight one between Yelena and Suhr. Next came 4.89m and Isinbayeva was the first to scale this height on her first attempt while the other two never managed to jump this height in three attempts. 

 Yelena jumped for joy on seeing her rivals fail and the crowd responded with a roar never heard since the Championship began. Now it was showtime and the bar was raised to a world record height of 5.07, a height she has got nowhere near in recent years, but sadly, she couldn't replicate those record breaking jumps of hers. 

Nevertheless, It was a fitting end to a glorious career that has spanned almost two decades. However, seeing as she is still able to compete very well with the younger athletes, the lure of more medals could still see her compete again, even at the 2016 Olympics... you just never know. Until then however, we salute and say thank you to this immensely gifted woman who has wowed us with not just her sporting abilities but her lovely smile as well. Thank you Yelena.