Isinbayeva back on familiar Donetsk turf on Saturday

Yelena Isinbayeva celebrates 5m World indoor record in Donetsk in 2009 (Zepter)

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After a successful return to competition before a home crowd in Moscow last weekend, the next appearance on Yelena Isinbayeva's agenda is at a meeting where she also feels very much at home.

Once again, the World record holder and two-time Olympic Pole Vault champion will be among the headliners at the Pole Vault Stars Meeting in Donetsk, Ukraine, on Saturday (12), a competition that's been firmly etched into her appointment book since she first competed in this southeast Ukrainian city in 2004. And she has yet to lose.

Not only has Isinbayeva remained undefeated there, but she has competed consistently well. She’s produced history's four highest indoor clearances in Donetsk - a few more if you include ancillary efforts - topped by her 5.00m leap in 2009, the first indoors beyond that majestic barrier. In all, she has raised the World record indoors eight times in Donetsk, twice in 2009 - first to 4.97m before having the bar raised to 5.00m. Her 4.81m world-leading clearance in the Russian capital last weekend will clearly be under threat.

But Donetsk, as the meet’s name implies, is never a one-woman (or one-man) show, and this year's 22nd edition is no different.

The women’s field is the strongest to be assembled this year, with Brazil’s Fabiana Murer leading the challengers. The 2010 World indoor champion opened her season with a victory at the Millrose Games late last month, topping 4.74m. The field also boasts Russia's Svetlana Feofanova, the reigning European champion outdoors and former World record holder who finished second to Isinbayeva in Moscow last Sunday; Anna Rogowska, Poland's reigning World champion outdoors; and Russian Yuliya Golubchikova, the reigning European champion indoors.

On the men’s side, the stand-out name is that of Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie, the inaugural Samsung Diamond League winner in the event last season and reigning European champion indoors and out. The 24-year-old has won five of his six competitions this season and produced the year’s three best clearances: 5.92m, 5.90m, and 5.85m.

He’ll take on American veteran Derek Miles, the 2005 winner in Donetsk; Ukraine’s Maksym Mazuryk, whose 5.81m indoor career best came with his victory in Donetsk in 2008; and Russian Igor Pavlov, a former World and European indoor champion.

Fittingly, the annual competition is organised and hosted by Pole Vault legend and current IAAF Senior Vice President Sergey Bubka, the six-time World champion and 1988 Olympic gold medallist whose 6.15m vault from 1993, the highest clearance ever, came before his hometown crowd in Donetsk’s Sport Palace “Druzba”.

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF