Posted: February 1, 2005

Athletics: Dibaba Sisters Rise To First And Second - While Gebrselassie Drops Out Of IAAF World Rankings

1 February 2005

Monaco – The first World record of the 2005 indoor athletics season meant a sure rise in the latest IAAF World Rankings for Tirunesh Dibaba. The 19-year-old Ethiopian ran 14:32.93 (1357 points) to win the 5000m at the Boston Reebok Indoor Games over the weekend.

Athens Olympic bronze medallist, Dibaba overtook her compatriot Meseret Defar and the Kenyan duo of Isabella Ochichi and Edith Masai to rise into 2nd place in the Women’s 5000–10,000m Event Rankings behind her older sister Ejegayehu Dibaba.

In the Women’s Overall Rankings, Tirunesh stepped up seven places to 15th, while Ejegayehu also improved one spot to 12th after finishing second in Boston with 14:58.25 (1269 points).

In the Men’s 5000–10,000m Event Rankings, Ethiopia’s Sileshi Sihine dropped two places to 4th allowing Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and Gebre-Egziabher Gebremariam of Ethiopia to rise to 2nd and 3rd respectively, while another Ethiopian dropped out of the Event Rankings this week.

With Haile Gebrselassie’s performance from last year’s Boston Indoor Games no longer counting for the Rankings due to the 365-day rule, the former Olympic and World champion only has 5 results which can be credited to his 5000–10,000m Event Rankings; therefore Gebrselassie loses his 5th place and allows the rest of the field to move up a spot.

The best men’s performance score of not only the past fortnight, but the year to date came from Ukrainian pole vaulter Ruslan Yeremenko. The 26-year-old improved his indoor personal best by 4 centimetres to 5.84m and set a World leading mark when he won the Stuttgart Sparkassen Cup (1309 points). He also moved up 11 places to 21st in the Event Rankings. Germany’s Lars Börgeling finished third with 5.70m (1238 points), but managed to improve on his Rankings position by moving up 2 places to 10th.

Full details of changes in the IAAF World rankings can be found on the IAAF web site. IAAF.org.

For the remainder of the indoor season, the IAAF World Rankings will be published weekly as usual.

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