Beijing: Sergey Bubka on Monday denied he was the underdog in the battle for the IAAF presidency with Sebastian Coe, insisting he was "very confident" of victory between two legends of track and field.

Bubka goes head-to-head with Coe when the 214 member federations of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) vote on Wednesday on whom they think should take over from incumbent Lamine Diack, who is stepping down at the age of 82 after 16 years in charge. Some media outlets have tagged up Coe, the British two-time Olympic 1500m champion, as frontrunner, but Bubka, who also won Olympic pole vault gold and 10 world titles for Ukraine, insisted this was not the case.