A silver medallist at the last European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Russian Pole Vaulter Yuliya Goluchikova eyes the top prize in Torino. Photoes by Picture Alliance

Yuliya Golubchikova has not yet got a gold medal at a major championship but  the Russian pole vaulter could alter that statistic in a few weeks time at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino, which will be staged between Match 6-8.

In the absence of her compatriots Yelena Isinbayeva and Svetlana Feofanova, who between them have won the last three European indoor titles but who have chosen to focus their attention on the outdoor season, the door could be open for Golubchikova to convert the silver medal she won two years ago in Birmingham into gold.

"The European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino are my big target this winter and without Yelena and Svetlana there, I think I have a good chance of success," commented the 25-year-old Muscovite, after going clear over a world-leading 4.70m close to home in the Russian capital on Sunday.

"The challenge for me now is to be consistent between 4.80 and 4.90 during the winter. My personal best (indoors and outdoors) is 4.75 but I believe I can raise it to 4.90."

If she was to achieve her ambition in the Italian city and go over 4.90m there, it would equal Isinbayeva's Championship record from the 2005 Championships in Madrid, a performance which was also a World indoor record at the time.

It also worth noting that after Isinbayeva's current World and European indoor record of 4.95m, set last year in the Ukrainian vaulting Mecca of Donetsk, the next woman in both rankings in Feofanova, who jumped 4.85m indoors in 2004.

"I'm serious (about going over 4.90m), because if you are not ambitious, you'll never achieve anything," added Golubchikova, as if to emphasise her competitive streak.

Last summer, she put behind her several years of inconsistency and developed into big-time competitor, developing a mental toughness hitherto unseen after suffering from psychological problems when the bar got beyond her comfort zone.

Firstly, she improved her personal best by three centimetres to 4.73m for victory at the SPAR European Cup in Annecy, France.

She then acquired the hotly disputed third place in the Beijing-bound Russian women's pole vault trio, grabbing it ahead of rivals such as Tatyana Polnova and Anastasiya Shvedova by finishing second behind Feofanova in the Russian Championships, with 2004 Olympic champion Isinbayeva having already pre-selected.

Despite dishing out a personal best of 4.75m in Beijing Yuliya Goluchikova had to contend with a fourth place finish.

She had the frustration of finishing just out of the Olympic medals in fourth place - and was the third placed Russian in the final - but took some consolation from the fact that she still rose to the occasion with an personal best of 4.75m.

However, despite being contented that she has started 2009 in fine fashion, ironically the problems Golubchikova faced in her first competition for nearly four months have convinced her that there is much, much, more to come during this indoor season.

"As always, nothing goes completely perfectly and there was a slight spasm at the back of my right thigh. My left leg also had some twinges and when I arrived at the arena I was uncertain whether I was going to compete or not.

"All the time while I was warming up and stretching, I was still not sure whether I was actually going to compete or not. In the end, I decided to just try and see how things went.

"Considering how I felt, things went very well but at 4.80 one of my feet started to be painful. It's a pity because I was hoping for a personal best," reflected Golubchikova.

Like Isinbayeva and Feofanova, Golubchikova's earliest sporting success came as a junior gymnast. However, by the age of 14, there was the suggestion from her coaches that she was getting too big to be able to succeed on the international stage at her first love. Now standing 1.75m, she's the tallest of the top European women vaulters.

"I was then invited to try the pole vault and I thought: 'Why not?' said Golubchikova, who finished second at the 2002 IAAF World Junior Championships.

However, at the very next meeting in Finland, after climbing the heights in Jamaica she literally came crashing down to earth.

Missing the landing mat on a vault, she broke one of the vertebrae in her neck, an injury so serious that local doctors initially refused to have her transferred to a Russian hospital for fear that she could be paralysed during the move.

Even though she returned to training just three months after the traumatising injury, the event proved to be a watershed for Golubchikova. Although she competed in 2003 and 2004, she didn't improve for another three years.

The corner was finally turned two years ago during the 2007 indoor season, highlighted by her second place at the European Athletics Indoor Championships.

Golubchikova followed up that success when she moved outdoors with sixth place at the 2007 IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Japan. Now, she is looking to become one of the golden girls in Torino.