Pole vault star Isinbayeva shocked by attacks in Russian hometown

Double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva on Monday said she was devastated and shocked by two deadly attacks that have rocked her hometown of Volgograd in southern Russia. "It is hard for me to talk now," Isinbayeva told the ITAR-TASS news agency. "None of my family or loved ones suffered. But I feel terrible, simply terrible." Isinbayeva, who enthralled Russia with her victory in the World Athletics Championships in Moscow this summer, is probably the most famous living resident of the city. The athletics star was born in Volgograd in 1982 to a Russian mother and father of Dagestan origin. She still trains in the city under the guidance of her coach since childhood, Yevgeny Trofimov. Volgograd is primarily known as the site of the World War II Battle of Stalingrad, seen as a turning point in the conflict which paved the way for the defeat of Nazi Germany by the USSR. At least 14 people were killed on Monday in a bombing that destroyed a packed trolleybus in Volgograd, a day after 17 people died in a suicide strike on the city's main train station. Source: AFP