Seventeen-year-old Zhang Yingning Thursday set the bar higher for the women's Asian indoor pole vault record by overcoming a height of 4.46 meters in the Shanghai leg of China's 2007 national indoor athletics championships.

In the process, the teenager also ensured herself a dream ticket to the Beijing Olympic Games thanks to her winning performance.

The previous record of 4.45 meters was set back in March 2002 by top Chinese pole vaulter Gao Shuying.

This tops a good run of form for Zhang whose rising performances have already seen her  for this year's world athletics championships to be held in Osaka, Japan.

(Xinhua News Agency March 16, 2007)