Yelena Isinbayeva turns into human centipede

Yelena Isinbayeva, Russia's pole vaulter, twice an Olympic gold medalist and five-times a World Champion, suffers from the centipede syndrome, Lenta.Ru reports with reference to Isinbayeva's coach Yevgeny Trofimov.

According to Mr. Trofimov, Yelena developed the syndrome after she had had her mentor replaced. As a result, Isinbayeva finds it difficult to find out "which leg to move to make the first step as she walks," The Sovetsky Sport newspaper said.

Trofimov said that in the past, when the world-famous Russian pole vaulter was working with him, she had one particular style in her jumping. Her style changed as she started working with another coach for five years. Now Isinbayeva has a mess in her head as she is trying to recollect her previous technique.

"When I was her coach for eight years, she was jumping in one style. Afterwards, when she was working with Vitaly Petrov for five years, her style became absolutely different. Now she is trying to recollect everything. We had no time for that and everything got messed up in her head. She mixes one style with the other. Figuratively speaking she has the centipede syndrome. She doesn't know which leg to move first to start walking," Trofimov said.

"I don't think that Yelena's sixth place at the World Championship in Daegu is a tragedy. It does not mean that her career is going to end. She spent some time off resting in Monte Carlo. Then she returned to Volgograd. On October 10 we started serious trainings to get ready for the winter season," Trofimov said.

The coach also said that Isinbayeva would perform at the indoor World Championship in Istanbul, Gazeta.Ru reports.