Isinbayeva – the next ARAF president?

Arguably the greatest exponent of women’s pole-vaulting in the world, Yelena Isinbayeva will run for Russian Athletics Federation presidency. She features among the four candidates to register for the election to choose the new president of ARAF. The All-Russian Athletics Federation is the governing body for athletics in Russia.

Isinbayeva missed out on the Rio Olympics in lieu of the 67 Russian athletes banned in the doping issue. The International Association of Athletics Federations(IAAF) had banned the Russians following the uncovering of systematic state-sponsored doping.

ARAF president’s main target

Due to this ban, the ARAF’s main agenda would be to revoke this ban as soon as possible. The president will have a major say in this and hence, the elections will be conducted, ARAF said on its official website.

The Russian athletes were banned in November 2015 and the ban still holds. They have not been able to compete in any international competitions ever since. Isinbayeva, quite possibly due to personal acrimony vowed to take a strong stand against the IAAF for imposing the ban.

About Yelena Isinbayeva

Yelena Isinbayeva is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and a three time world champion. She gained worldwide recognition on breaching the 5 metre barrier in 2005. Isinbayeva was conferred with the tag of ‘World Sportswoman of the Year’ by Laureus in 2007 and 2009. She recently retired from athletics in August 2016.

The election and other contesting candidates

Currently, the other candidates in the race are the current president Dmitri Shlyakhtin who has been incumbent since January. General Secretary Mikhail Butov and the 2008 Olympics high jump champion Andrei Silnov are also vying for the coveted position. However the Russian media considers Isinbayeva as the front-runner for the job.

The list is now final following the termination of the applicant deadline on November 9. The election is slated to be held on the 9th of December.