Isinbayeva confident of winning top Russian post

Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, who retired last month after the blanket ban on Russian athletes from the Rio Games, said Thursday she expects to be elected head of the country's disgraced athletics body. "We have to act together. Together, we must defend our country, its honour and dignity, and then everything will be possible," the 34-year-old was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency TASS. The vote to appoint the next president of the Russian athletics federation (ARAF) will take place on December 9 and, according to local media, current boss Dmitry Shlyakhtin, elected in January, will not run after failing to lift the IAAF ban on Russian athletes in Rio over state-run doping. On Wednesday Isinbayeva, believed to be the frontrunner for the post, said: "I’ve made a decision I should lead our athletic federation and restore its foothold in the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)."