Pole Vault world champion Anna Rogowska of Poland. (Picture Alliance)

Reigning women's Pole Vault world champion Anna Rogowska took her Polish record tally into double figures last week but, in Britain's second city of Birmingham on Saturday, she has a different kind of target.

"I can now think seriously about attacking the family record!" said Rogowska, following her latest feat of clearing a Polish indoor record of 4.81m on home soil at the European Athletics Indoor Permit Meeting in Bydgoszcz last week.

"I went to that meeting with the clear intention of setting a new national record and as I stood on the runway for my third attempt at 4.81m, I said to myself 'make yourself happy' and I did."

"But my husband (and also her coach) Jacek Torlinski has a best of 4.85m. For years, I have been trying to improve on that and haven't been successful. That's why I attempted 4.86m in Bydgoszcz, after I had cleared 4.81m."

"Now I believe I can clear that height this season," she added. "And I want to beat the (Polish indoor) record in every competition this winter up to and including the World Indoor Championships in Doha next month."

Rogowska's outdoor best is 4.83m and, in total, she now has revised the Polish indoor and outdoor records on 10 occasions.

After her Bydgoszcz leap, she stands second on this year's world rankings, with only Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva in front of her, after her vault of 4.85m in Moscow earlier this month.

Isinbayeva has dominated women's Pole Vaulting since 2004, the year she won the first of her two Olympic gold medals, but at the World Championships last summer, Rogowska became the unexpected world champion after Isinbayeva sensationally failed to clear a height.

"But Yelena is still vaulting very well so I don't think I'm the new star of women's pole vaulting. I think 4.81m is too low to make me a star of the event," she reflected modestly.

"At least, I don't feel like a star. I'm still the same person that I was before the World Championships. However, winning the gold medal did bring some strange offers. One man wanted to paint me in the nude, but I would never agree to something like that. I refused immediately."

Rogowska's only worry at the moment is a minor back problem which manifested itself in Bydgoszcz. It has required some visits to the physiotherapist during the last few days. "It's nothing serious, I just fell awkwardly while I was warming up at the Pedro's Cup (in Bydgoszcz)."

Her rivals in Birmingham at the Aviva Grand Prix will include her Polish compatriot and the 2009 World Championships silver medallist Monika Pyrek, Russia's former world record holder Svetlana Feofanova, British record holder Kate Dennison as well as the very good German pair of Silke Spiegelburg and Anna Battke.