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A perplexing failure at the World Indoor Championships has left Russian pole vault great Yelena Isinbayeva wondering if she should compete this season.

"I need to find the spark again mentally," the Olympic champion and world record holder said after failing to win a medal in a second consecutive global championship.

"To win at this level, you need to be fresh," said Isinbayeva after failing to clear 4.75 metres, well below her world indoor record of 5.00 metres.

"Maybe I am tired emotionally and need some rest," she said.

The Diamond League outdoor circuit begins in May.

"I am going to talk to Vitaliy (Petrov, her coach) and we will talk about it," she said. "It might mean taking off this summer."

The 27-times world record holder said she did not think the problem was physical.

"It's just something strange that happens to me and I can't get over," she said. "I felt really good physically."

Her problems began with last year's world outdoor championships, at which she did not clear any height in the final.

But she responded to that failure by setting the world outdoor record of 5.06 metres in Zurich days later.

"Every time I feel the pressure of having to be the best," she said. "Win the medals and not let down all my fans, the Russians, myself."

No other woman has cleared five metres but Poland's Anna Rogowska and Brazil's Fabiana Murer are the reigning world pole vault champions.

Reuters