GATESHEAD is proving a popular place for Yelena Isinbayeva.

A year after breaking the world record in the pole vault at the International Stadium, she repeated the feat at yesterday's Norwich Union British Grand Prix.

The Russian cleared 4.82m 12 months ago and then elevated the mark to 4.86m in Budapest in March of this year after a decision to combine both the indoor and outdoor records.

Yesterday, despite the windy conditions, she proved she could do even better, soaring to an impressive 4.87m, a massive 17cms ahead of her nearest rival, compatriot Svetlana Feofanova (4.70m).

That said, she seemed a little disappointed she didn't go even higher.

"It's nice to get the world record but in training three weeks ago I cleared five metres," she said.

"I am ready to jump higher but I want to do it step by step, centimetre by centimetre. I think 5m will happen eventually."

Isinbayeva paid tribute to the North-East crowd for spurring her on.

"I like Gateshead," she said. "I broke my first record here last year and I've come back and done it again. I really like the crowd here, they are always encouraging."

As far as Athens is concerned, she said she was not going to get carried away just yet.

"It is still a long time to the Olympics. There are a lot of good girls around at the moment but my main focus is getting the gold medal in Athens.

"Today, was my first competition of the season and I will take one step at a time," she said.

An anticipated highlight of yesterday's meeting was Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele's attempt to smash Brendan Foster's stadium record set some 30 years ago.

Bekele, fast becoming the biggest thing in distance running since Haile Gebrselassie, broke both the 5,000m and 10,000m world records in the space of nine days earlier this year and is odds on favourite to be the star of the show in Athens.

However, yesterday's windy onditions put paid to any record breaking and local hero Foster's name lives on a while longer in the history books.

"It was very cold and windy out there and it made me feel very tired," he said after clocking 7:41.31. "It was very hard to keep going when I was on my own. I wanted to beat the stadium record but the weather got the better of me.

"The crowd were fantastic, it really helped hearing them.

"I now need to concentrate on the Olympics. I have got some more races coming up."

In the men's 100m Kim Collins served notice of his intentions by leading from start to finish, crossing the line in a season's best of 10.21secs.

Aziz Zakari of Ghana was second in 10.26 and Britain's Mark Lewis-Francis third in 10.34. Fellow Britons, Nicholas Smith (10.37) and Jason Gardener (10.38) were fifth and sixth respectively.

"It's too cold for me," said the St Kitts and Nevis sprinter afterwards.

"I have come from 85 degrees and it's still a bit chilly for me.

"Because this was the first major race I didn't know what everybody else had to offer and I wasn't sure what was going to happen."

He declared himself happy with his time, adding: "With my body frame you don't do too well going against the wind."

"I still have a lot of work on and I am feeling extra pressure this year," he said looking ahead to Athens. "But that is part of the sport.

"Once you do something good everybody expects you to continue. When you are out there you cannot show any signs of fear. I try to keep the same attitude all the time."

Lewis-Francis was realistic about his performance.

"I am struggling a little bit with an Achilles injury," he said. "But apart from that I cannot really complain.

"It is all about peaking later in the season. It was a bit windy out there but it is the same for everybody."

Christian Olsson emerged victorious in the triple jump, seeing off the challenge of Britain's Phillips Idowu. Olsson jumped 17.43m with Jadel Gregorio of Brazil second with 17.23 and Idowu back in third with 16.72.