Goldie consigns misery of Osaka to distant past

The UK record holder put behind her the calamity of Osaka when, entering the world championships as one of the favourites for gold, she ended up failing even to qualify for the final, a performance which not only left her distraught but also put a huge question mark over her temperament on the big occasions.

She said: "I have to say I'm very pleased with that. I learned a lesson from what happened in Osaka and though I was hoping to qualify straight away from the first round today, I was pretty pleased with my second effort and I've got the feel of the track now. It's job done and I'm definitely looking forward to the final."

Yet today with the pressure on, the Newmarket athlete produced a a mediocre opening throw of 60.79 metres, 71 centimetres short of the automatic qualifying mark of 61.50m.

But the 26-year-old responded excellently in the second round, unleashing a 62.99m effort which was just under a metre shy of her best of the season.

It left Sayers as the fifth best qualifier for Thursday night's final here - but the four ahead of her include world No1, Czech world champion Barbora Spotakova, top qualifier with 67.69m, and German Christina Obergfoll, the silver medallist from Osaka who threw 67.52m.

They looked a cut above the rest but Sayers cannot be discounted as an outside bet for a medal.

But she will need to find the sort of form which saw her smash two British records last year, including a splendid 65.05m effort in Loughborough.

Meanwhile, Russian pole vaulting superstar Yelena Isinbayeva couldn't resist a few digs at her trash-talking US rival Jenn Stuczynski today after enthralling 91,000 fans with the first world record in the Bird's Nest Stadium.

Before the event, Stuczynski had stoked the fires by saying: "I hope we do some damage and, you know, kick some Russian butt."

It was not the wisest tactic as Isinbayeva, the undisputed queen of the sport, became motivated by 'kicking some butt' of her own.

And after beating her own world record with 5.05m and consigning the American to a distant silver, Isinbayeva said: "I am not deaf. It made me really angry. I just wanted to prove who is the best."

Then she offered one final icy final message to her beaten rival. "She must respect me and know her position," said the Russian. "Now she knows it."