A long star jumper is born and Isinbayeva faults her English for a miscommunication

Five things we learned from day seven at Moscow's World Championships in Athletics.

Aleksandr Menkov celebrates after winning the men's long jump final Reuters/Dominic Ebenbichler

• A day is a long time in athletics. Following her broadside on day six against a fellow athlete for a lack of respect towards Russia and the Russian people and comments that carried a whiff of homophobia, Yelena Isinbayeva clarified her position. Gone was the cooing about baby love and instead there was a forthright explanation that she abhorred discrimination of any kind. She also said in a statement issued by the championship organisers, the IAAF, that English was not her first language and that she might have been misunderstood. I was at the press conference at the Luzhniki stadium on day six when she was holding forth about babies, pole vaults and nail painting protests. It was obvious she was having problems conveying the subtleties of the argument when she spoke in English about the potential treatment of gay competitors at the Winter Olympics under new laws covering the publicising of homosexual information to under 18s. Her day seven statement, however, did not back track on urging people to come to Russia and respect its rules.
• Press conference organisers have learned their lesson. The IAAF has done sterling work since the beginning of the championships to arrange sessions with some of the greatest names from athletics. Ed Moses, Sebastian Coe and Mike Powell have been among the former stars who’ve given their insights into issues such as the threat of a Winter Olympics boycott or the sport’s over dependence on the aura of Usain Bolt. They stated their cases firmly and lucidly without encountering any problems. Ah, but what do Moses, Coe and Powell have in common? They speak English. Svetlana Masterkova won golds in the 800 and 1500 metres at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and gold in the 1500 metres at the 1999 world championships in Seville. She passed through on day seven. She took questions in English and answered in Russian. Smart.
• A long jump star is born. Aleksandr Menkov is 22 and won his first world championship in front of adoring fans in the Luzhniki stadium. While a poster boy has emerged, it’s not the great leap forward. Powell identified Menkov as the great white hope but said he wanted to see jumpers hit the 8 metres 60 mark or 8.70. These were distances athletes were regularly reaching in his heyday back in the early 1990s. Powell still holds the long jump world record. He set it at the 1991 world championships in Tokyo . He leapt 8.95 to beat Carl Lewis (8.91) into second place. Menkov’s winning distance? 8.56.
• Hard work is everything. Mo Farah emulated Kenenisa Bekele when he added a world championship 5 and 10,000 metres double to an Olympics double over the same distance. Bekele did it at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the Berlin world championships in 2009. The 30-year-old Briton said: “Many people forget and think I just came overnight as a great athlete. It’s been years of struggle.”
• If you see Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, do not say she’s fast. Yes, the Jamaican is only the third woman to win a 100 and 200 metres sprint double in the history of the championships. And yes, she can surge over 100 metres in 10.71 seconds and run 200 metres in 22.17 seconds. But if you go up to her and say: “You’re fast,” it might not be well received. A dip into one of the online dictionaries that regale us with snippets of Jamaican Patois, shows the definition as: “to be rude, impertinent, to meddle with somebody's business, to be forward.” Seen?