Posted: March 10, 2005

Athletics: Isinbayeva Leads The Women, Daniel Kipchirchir Komen The Overall Top Performer For February

Following Tirunesh Dibaba’s triumph in January, another distance runner posts the top performance in the IAAF World Rankings for February. This time it is Kenya’s Daniel Kipchirchir Komen who earned the most points in a single race, winning the 1500m in Karlsruhe with 3:33.08 (1363 points). Komen not only clocked the fastest time of the year, but turned in the best performance so far for 2005, including all male and female results.

On the women’s side, it was the first time in 2005 – but probably not the last – that Russia’s

pole-vaulting sensation Yelena Isinbayeva had the best performance of the month. The Olympic champion moved the World Indoor record to 4.89m in Liévin (1351 points) to clinch the best performance score of the past month for women.

The best women’s performance on the track came from Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar who won the 3000m in Birmingham with 8:33.05 (1344 points), while the best man in the field events in February was Russian high jumper Yaroslav Rybakov who set a personal best of 2.38m (1336 points) in Stockholm.

Two Japanese athletes delivered the best Road Running performances. For the men it was Toshinari Takaoka’s win in the Tokyo Marathon. Takaoka finished in 2:07:41 to record 1347 points, while for the women it was his compatriot Takako Kotorida who won the Marugame Half-Marathon with 1:09:34 (1244 points).

The Chinese Race Walking Championships provided both top Race Walking performances in February. Yucheng Han won the men’s 50km in 3:36:20 (1296 points), while the best women’s race walker was Jing Jiang 1:27:19 (1260 points) who won the 20km.

Both the men’s and women’s top junior performances in February came in Fayetteville, Arkansas in the 400m, with LaShawn Merritt running 44.93 (1301 points), while Natasha Hastings excelled in the women’s event with 51.85 (1200 points).

All the leaders of the “Weeks on Top” category maintained their positions. Maria Mutola is still far ahead of the rest of the field with 218 weeks at the top of her Event Ranking, which is how long the IAAF World Rankings have been in place.

The IAAF World Rankings “Top Performer of the Month” is released on the first week of each month collecting the results of the previous four weeks and dividing them into categories. Click on the link below to also find the top six male and female athletes who have been leading their respective Event Rankings for the most number of consecutive weeks. Please note that the IAAF World Rankings have been officially published since 1 January 2001.

IAAF Rankings.