August 19, 2008	Tuesday	Sha’aban 16, 1429

BEIJING, Aug 18: Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva brought smiles back to the Bird’s Nest on Monday with a flamboyant, world-record breaking display of pole vaulting, after a morning dominated by Chinese disappointment.

Home fans had been stunned into silence and tears earlier in the day as national hero and 110 metres hurdles Olympic champion Liu Xiang hobbled off the track and out of the Games injured.

Life returned to a packed stadium in the evening, though, when Isinbayeva vaulted to a new world record in a display of pure theatre to transfix the crowd just as Usain Bolt’s virtuoso sprinting show had done at the weekend.

Defending her title, the pin-up girl of Russian athletics sheltered under a towel and then, bizarrely, a duvet to focus her mind between vaults as cameramen swarmed around her

With track events over and the gold medal already assured, her painstaking preparations and attempts to psyche herself up had the 91,000 crowd eating out of her hand for half an hour.

Isinbayeva has already set 13 outdoor world records.

She was the lone athlete in action as she tried to take it another centimetre higher. Finally, on her third attempt, she cleared 5.05m, screaming with joy even as she fell to earth.

She lifted her eyes heavenward and then did a somersault of delight on the mat before acknowledging the cheers.

It was such a stark contrast to the morning’s action, when the exit of China’s most popular sportsman and main track hope cast a pall over an otherwise magnificent Games for the hosts.

At the end of day 10, China, though, led with a seemingly unbeatable 39 golds, with the United States way behind on 22.

Kenya grabbed two track golds, with a seventh successive win in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase, and victory in the women’s 800m through another of athletics’ major emerging talents, 18-year-old Pamela Jelimo.

Jamaica stayed in the limelight, with Bolt breezing through two rounds of the 200 metres in his quest to be the first man to win the Olympic sprint double since Carl Lewis in 1984.

“Lightning” Bolt kept plenty in the tank as he prepared for Wednesday’s final, and again performed for the cameras before cantering home in golden shoes marked “Beijing 200m”.

There was satisfaction too for the US team as they managed a clean sweep of the men’s 400m, led by Angelo Taylor.

The hosts of the 2012 Games, Britain, picked up another gold – their 12th – in cycling to regain third place in the medals table and chalk up with their strongest showing since 1920.It had been Liu’s sad story, though, that had dominated attention in the morning.

After a false start in his first-round heat, the man whose face adorns billboards across China clutched his leg and walked off the track. Fans looked stunned, some wept openly.

“Liu was very, very upset,” said athletics head coach Feng Shuyong of the tendon injury that compounded a hamstring problem. “He would not have withdrawn unless the pain was intolerable.”

The 25-year-old Liu was more than just China’s best hope for track gold, he was also the country’s best-known sportsman, surpassing even NBA basketball player Yao Ming.

His personal coach for 12 years, Sun Haiping, wept, as did some Chinese journalists.

Liu became his country’s first male Olympic track champion in Athens 2004 and was China’s best chance for an athletics gold in Beijing though he faced a stiff rival in Cuba’s Dayron Robles.

His former coach said excessive pressure from government and sports officials had prevented Liu recovering from his injury, while Chinese fans reacted with a mixture of sadness and anger.

Liu Xiang became the symbol of new China ... even 10 more gold medals would not compensate for the loss of this gold.”

Games poster-boy Michael Phelps was resting on Monday and looking forward to going home to his family, friends and his dog in Baltimore after his record eight golds at one Games.

Ominously for the world’s other swimmers, he said he wanted to swim for at least another four years to compete in 2012 and has not ruled out trying for nine medals next time.—Reuters