Isinbayeva retires

Barred from competing at the Rio Games, Russia's double Olympic champion Yelena Isinbayeva announced her retirement on Friday and said whoever won the women's pole vault in her absence would not have achieved a proper gold medal.

At a news conference, Isinbayeva also said God would be the judge of whether athletics' governing body was right to exclude almost the entire Russian track and field team, including herself, over what it said was incontrovertible evidence of state-sponsored doping.

Isinbayeva said she had been confident of winning the pole vault.

"I really believed in my victory, because everything was heading towards that," Isinbayeva said. "When the girls jump today without me, do you think that will be honest?

"If you look at the big picture, when you compete without Isinbayeva it can't be a proper gold medal."

Whoever wins, she said, "I will congratulate the new champion, of course, but I'm sure she will feel it's not entirely gold because goal number one is to beat Isinbayeva."

"I am no judge, I am not God, so if the president and all the members of the IAAF believe they behaved honestly towards me and all the clean Russian track and field athletes, let that be on their conscience, God will be their judge," she said.

After several times deflecting questions about her future plans, she finally announced her retirement.

"Today in Rio on August 19, 2016, Yelena Isinbayeva is finishing her professional career, this is my statement," she said. "I'm very happy that I fulfilled my dreams, I won all possible medals, all possible titles, I won the trust and love of all the fans in the world."