Posted: February 15, 2005

Athletics: Pognon Sprinting Up The Iaaf World Rankings

Monte Carlo – France’s new European record holder Ronald Pognon is not only quick on the track, but he is also taking big strides in the latest IAAF World Rankings.

The 22-year-old clocked 6.45 seconds (1337 points) to win the Karlsruhe LBBW Meeting and re-write the history books. Pognon is not only the fastest in the world this indoor season, but is also the fifth equal fastest ever!

With this blistering time Pognon moved up nine places to 13th in the Event Rankings, and with some strong meets coming up this week, one could well see the former European junior 200m champion in the Top-10 by next Tuesday.

The top performance of the week, however, belongs to Kenya’s Daniel Kipchirchir Komen. The 20-year- old won the 1500m in Karlsruhe with 3:33.08 (1362 points) and entered the Event Rankings in 18th place. Before this season, Komen had never ran an indoor meet, but that did not bother the young talent who became the 4th fastest man in history behind Hicham El-Guerrouj (MAR), Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) and compatriot Laban Rotich.

In the women’s 1500m Poland’s Lidia Chojecka-Okninska climbed one spot to 3rd in the Event Rankings, following her win in Karlsruhe, with a World leading time of 4:04.84 (1318 points).

With the indoor season in full swing, the 365-day-rule also came into effect for some athletes. Reigning Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy lost his top place in the men’s 800m Event Rankings after dropping 14 points by not defending his win from last year’s Stockholm GE Galan. The 23-year-old Russian was replaced by Kenya’s Wilfred Bungei atop the Event Rankings.

Double Olympic champion, Kelly Holmes, lost ground on the leaders in the Women’s 800m Event Rankings, as she slipped one spot to 6th for not repeating her win at the 2004 AAA Indoor Championships.

For the latest IAAF World Rankings www.iaaf.org.