Isinbayeva's London ghost: Sidorova won silver in pole vault at the Tokyo Olympics

For Russian athletes, the Tokyo Olympics began with a series of failures and disappointments.

In addition to the injuries of Daria Klishina and Sergei Shubenkov, the mediocre performances of Mikhail Akimenko, Ilya Ivanyuk and Valery Pronkin, the referee scandal around Ilya Shkurenev, the disqualification of Vasily Mizinov was also added.

On Thursday, the vice-champion of the world took part in the approach of 20 km and after passing half the distance he walked in the group of leaders.

However, the judges filed a complaint against the Russian for losing contact with the ground and switching to running, and was removed from the competition after four warnings. 

Anzhelika Sidorova from pole position had a good chance to interrupt this black streak.

In her discipline, she is the reigning world champion, and before arriving in Tokyo, she established herself in second place this season with her best attempt - 4.91 m.She has already taken the first step on the way to a medal - she overcame an extremely difficult qualification, which took place in the rain ...

Many girls then failed to pass the selection just because of difficult conditions.

The main victim of the bad weather was the American Sandy Morris, with whom Sidorova fought for gold in Doha.

During the jump, her pole went over the wet support and broke.

The athlete fell back on the edge of the mat.

She escaped injury, but received a psychological barrier that prevented her from further normal attempts.

So Sidorova was left without one of her main rivals in the final.

On Thursday, the competition began with a real embarrassment - seven girls in a row did not take the height of 4.50 m on the first try. Even the current Olympic champion Katerina Stefanidi from Greece was mistaken. The first to conquer this frivolous bar for such competitions was Sidorova. For her, the British Holly Bradshaw did it, and the season leader Katie Nagott from the USA, who has 4.95 m jumps, also began her performance with a failure. As a result, only five girls successfully coped with the first test and, accordingly, took the lead. Stephanidi and Najott escaped an early departure, but were forced to retreat in a medal dispute back.

The height of 4.70 m turned out to be even more problematic. Now all the girls, except one, have failed the first jump. Only Sidorova performed unmistakably, and she seized the sole leadership at such an early stage. Bradshaw and Najott improved on the second try, and Stephanidi on the third. All the rest were forced to be content with a modest result of 4.50 m, while each of them took 4.55 m in qualification.

For the four remaining participants, the bar was raised 10 cm higher.

Sidorova took her immediately, but now her result was repeated by Nadjott.

Bradshaw and Stephanidi continued to fight, only now behind the Russians and the American.

The next height, which was 4.85 m, made it possible to determine one extra athlete in a medal dispute.

Everyone, except the Olympic champion from Greece, conquered the bar on the first try.

She had to endure two jumps to a height of 4.90 m, but this did not save her.

Stephanidi remained in fourth place, without even really making an attempt to conquer the bar.

All three athletes who remained in the fight jumped so high this year.

But she submitted to only one of them this time.

With the second jump, Najott took the height, and she was the last in line after Sidorova and Bradshaw.

Now the American has become the only contender for gold.

The Russian woman made a terrible mistake in this situation - she decided to postpone the remaining attempt to 4.95 m, although she made three attempts less than her rivals, and, accordingly, was not tired yet. Elena Isinbaeva did the same in 2012 and lost the opportunity to fight for a medal more valuable than bronze. If Sidorova had remained at 4.90 m and took this height, she would have earned the right to two mistakes and could continue the battle with Najott on an equal footing at the next level.

As a result, the world champion did not use her last chance to win and became the silver medalist of the Tokyo Olympics - for Russian athletes, this award was the first in the past nine years.

Bradshaw also got stuck at 4.90 m and finished third without hitting the bar.

Gold medalist Najott ordered 5.01 meters and tried to set the country's record, but gave up on her first try.

Shortly after the end of the pole vault, the decathlon results were summed up.

Ilya Shkurenev scored 8413 points at the end of the two-day marathon and took eighth place.

The victory with the Olympic record was celebrated by the Canadian Damian Warner - he became the fourth athlete in history with more than 9000 points.

He exceeded this incredible result by 18 points.

The Russian national athletics team has two more chances for medals. On August 6, Elvira Khasanova will perform in the 20 km walk, and the next day Maria Lasitskene will perform in the high jump final. In qualifying, she made her worried, when only on the third attempt she took the required height of 1.95 m, but nevertheless she passed the selection and will try to add Olympic gold to the three world champion titles.