Posted: June 5, 2004

Athletics: New World Record For Top Ranked Bekele Whilst Wangui Closes On Radcliffe

Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) extended his win streak to 12 in fine fashion with a world record for 5000m of 12:37.35 and remains clear at the top of the latest edition of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians [ARRS] Monthly Rankings [as of 03 June 2004]

Paula Radcliffe has been inactive for some months and slowly her lead in the women's rankings is being eroded. Kenyan Lucy Wangui has closed to just 8 points of the long time British leader.

Major moves since the last rankings. Sileshi Sihen (ETH) has moved into second in the men's rankings following his win at Hengelo NED on 31st May at the Thales FBK-Games (NED) 10000m [26:39.69 ahead of fellow countryman and world record holder Haile Gebreselasie 26:41.58]

Both Paul Koech (KEN) and Mebrahtom Keflezighi (USA) move up as a result of their One/two in Celestial Seasonings Bolder Boulder 10km, Keflezighi moving into the world top 20.

Other major movers are Antonio Peña (ESP) from the La Rioja HfMarathon, Adam Dobrzynski (POL) from the Prague Int'l (CZE) Marathon, Luis Felipe de Jesus (POR) with his run in the Vienna City (AUT) Marathon and John C. Korir (KEN) in the Kenyan Armed Forces Champs (KEN) 10000m.

Biggest movers among the women were Marla Runyan (USA) with her win in the Boston High Performance 5000m and Sonia O'Sullivan (IRL) BUPA Great Manchester Run (ENG) 10K

These competitive rankings are based on a point exchange system, i.e. if Runner A beats Runner B, Runner A takes points from Runner B. Runner A could beat Runner B by one second or one minute, it makes no difference. All that counts is that Runner A beat Runner B. For further details of the point exchange system, please see the ARRS website

The point exchange system is designed to respond fairly rapidly to changes in a runner's fitness level so that performances more than a year old generally have little influence on a runner's current point level.

The second column provides the relative frequency of road (R), track (T), or crosscountry (C) races for that runner with the first letter indicating the venue most frequently raced (over the past 12 months).

A lower case letter in the first position indicates that fewer than 50% of the performances were of that type; in the second position, it is less than 30%, and in the third position, it is less than 10%.

The rankings will be released monthly but are available on a weekly basis by subscribing to the Analytical Distance Runner [ARRS newsletter](contact Ken Young at kcy@inreach.com ) or by becoming a member of the Association of Road Racing Statisticians (contact Andy Milroy at AndyMilroy@blueyonder.co.uk.

The current top ten listings for the major distance running nations are also attached.

Feedback is requested on these ARRS listings. Are they confusing or are they easy to understand? Do they provide useful or interesting information? Contact AndyMilroy@blueyonder.co.uk.

Further information about ARRS and its detailed road, track and cross country racing statistics can be found on our website - www.arrs.net. Further information about ARRS itself is available on that website in numerous languages.