updated 6:50 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2006

BIRMINGHAM, England - Yelena Isinbayeva and Kenenisa Bekele missed world marks and American long jumper Savante Stringfellow ruptured his kneecap tendon Saturday at the Birmingham Indoor meet.

Isinbayeva failed to capture her 20th world pole vault record when she missed three times at 16 feet, 1¾ inches.

The Russian, who has cleared 16-5¼ outdoors and dominated the event for two years, tried to set to set a new indoor mark six days after her 19th record of 16-1¼ at Donetsk, Ukraine.

Isinbayeva won the event by leaping 15-8½. Rival Anna Rogowska of Poland tied that mark for her career-best height, but lost on having more failures in the competition.

These days, it’s a surprise if Isinbayeva doesn’t break the record. But she said she was tired and suggested there were more spectacular performances to come.

“I’m not disappointed that I didn’t get the record today because I am very tired,” she said. “It’s getting more difficult to get world record every time. I will just have to go bit by bit and maybe soon I will have big jumps indoors as well as outdoors.”

Bekele, the 23-year-old Ethiopian who is world and Olympic 10,000 meter champion, was chasing a 2-mile mark owned by countryman Haile Gebrselassie, one of long distance running’s all-time greats.

He paid the price for a slow first mile, however, and was running virtually alone for the last quarter of the race before crossing the line in 8 minutes, 5.12 seconds. That was 0.47 outside Gebrselassie’s three year-old mark of 8:04.69.

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“I knew I was in record shape coming into the race but sometimes the pace of the race doesn’t go your way,” said Bekele, whose younger brother, Tariku, finished second, 8.20 seconds slower. “The third lap slowed right down and I just couldn’t get back onto the pace after that.”

Stringfellow was carried from the track with a serious knee injury after a bizarre landing in the long jump. He said the injury — a ruptured patella tendon — happened on take off.

The 2004 world indoor champion, who snapped an Achilles’ tendon later that year and missed the Olympics, landed flat on his back in the pit and stayed there embedded in the sand for several minutes while he received attention.

“My right knee just blew,” he said.

The injury happened in the second round after he started with a leap of 25-½. Ignisius Gaisah of Ghana won the event with a leap of 26-4¼.

Cuba’s Freddy Mayola was fastest out of the blocks to win the 60 in 6.55, ahead of world indoor champion Jason Gardiner, who was 0.02 slower.

Christine Arron won a high quality women’s 60 in 7.17 ahead of Belgium’s Kim Gevaert and former world 100 and 200 meter champion Zhanna Block. American former world 100 champion Torri Edwards, in her first race since returning from a doping ban, placed fourth in 7.21.

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