Yelena Isinbayeva was honored at the IAAF World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo on Saturday night with the Distinguished Career award – and promised to return in 2016 as Olympic champion again. It was another memorable evening for the brilliant Russian pole vaulter who this summer regained the gold medal after winning the pole vault at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Moscow. And as she took to the stage at the gala, she reaffirmed her plans to aim for glory at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Isinbayeva, 31, said, “I am really looking forward to coming back here on this stage in 2016 but as the best female of the year. “I have made a decision – after the birth of my baby – to try to get my third Olympic gold medal from Rio.” Isinbayeva is not pregnant but plans to take time out of the sport to start a family before returning in 2016 with the hope of adding to her Olympic successes from Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008. The award was in recognition of her amazing career which saw her first win a major international gold with victory at the World Youth Championships in Bydgoszcz in 1999. Since then she has won 14 gold medals at the major championships. They are made up of two Olympic titles (2004, 2008), three world titles (2005, 2007, 2013), four world indoor titles (2004, 2006, 2008, 2012), one European Athletics title (2006), one European indoor title (2005), a European under-23 title (2003), a world junior title (2000) and a European junior title (2001). She talked of Moscow as being “the best” for her. The memories will never go away for Isinbayeva who took the world title for the first time since Osaka six years ago with her vault of 4.89m which brought amazing scenes of celebration in the Luzhniki Stadium in front of her home fans who had constantly chanted her name. source
