15 February 2009 – Donetsk, Ukraine - In her 2009 debut, Yelena Isinbayeva raised her own World record indoors twice at the Pole Vault Stars meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, today, first to 4.97m* and again to 5.00m*.

Jumping before a capacity crowd of more than 5000, the 26-year-old Russian added the indoor five metres milestone to her illustrious career. Isinbayeva, last year's World Athlete of the Year, has now broken the World record indoors in Donetsk for the sixth consecutive year, and today's efforts marked the 25th and 26th world records for the reigning Olympic, world and European champion.

Isinbayeva said that her pre-meet game plan was to add two World records to her already bulging collection.

“We had in mind to first do 4.96 and then five metres,” she said. “The reason is the atmosphere here. It’s a very special competition and there are lots of special connections for me here.” But her plan nearly went awry.