Klishina: 'It's hard being the only Russian'

"It is very hard being the only Russian, as normally we are a big team with big support and I am alone," said Darya Klishina, the only athlete representing Russia in the track and field events.

Russian long jumper Darya Klishina progressed to the final with a 6.64m jump.

Darya Klishina says she is finding it difficult being the sole Russian athletics competitor at Rio 2016.

The long jumper progressed to the final of the competition with a jump of 6.64 metres in qualification on Tuesday.

A blanket ban on Russian track-and-field athletes from all competitions was imposed by the IAAF in November of last year following revelations of state-sponsored doping in a report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

Klishina was initially deemed to be untainted by the Russian system and cleared to compete having spent three years based in the United States, only to see her eligibility revoked by the IAAF on the second day of athletics competition in Rio.

But she immediately appealed successfully to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and will now go for gold in Wednesday's final.

Speaking after qualification, Klishina said: "It is very hard being the only Russian, as normally we are a big team with big support and I am alone.

"I want the Russian team here with me. I was nervous. I had too much stress over the last week but I do not want to talk about the last week."