Posted: April 19, 2005

Athletics: Radcliffe Re-Enters At Top Of Road Running In Latest IAAF World Rankings

19 April 2005: Monte-Carlo - Paula Radcliffe regained her top spot in the Women’s Road Running Event Rankings after comfortably winning the London Marathon in 2:17:42 (1406 points), the third fastest time ever by a woman. Not having recorded enough results in the past 365 days, Radcliffe had been unranked in recent months but with her win in London the Briton will now keep her average of 1336 points and stay in the Ranking at least until November 7th 2005. The World record holder also entered the Women’s Overall Ranking in 34th place.

The Marathon season is well underway as there were four GL category races around the world in the past two weeks. With the Paris, Rotterdam, London and Boston results all included in the latest edition of the IAAF World Rankings, it is not surprising that there is a new number one in the Women’s Road Running Event Ranking. The Men’s Event has also become closer than ever with the top-4 athletes separated by just 5 points.

As well as finishing second to Radcliffe in London, Romania’s Constantina Dita-Tomescu is now also second behind the British runner in the Event Ranking. The Romanian finished in 2:22:50 (1319 points) and strengthened her place ahead of Kenyan Catherine Ndereba who won an historic fourth Boston Marathon title. The World champion finished strongly after a slow start to clock 2:25:13 (1246 points) and move up one place to 3rd behind Radcliffe and Dita-Tomescu.

Previous leader Yingjie Sun of China dropped to 4th this week mainly because Radcliffe, Dita-Tomescu and Ndereba improved their scores, but also because Sun did not repeat or improve on her 7th place finish from 2004 at this year’s London Marathon (22nd 2:42:05 - 973pts).

Olympic Champion Stefano Baldini just managed to hold on to first place in the Men’s Road Running Event Ranking, despite finishing 5th in London with 2:09:25 (1247 points) after losing the leading pack early on. His lead at the top of the Event Ranking decreased to a single point after Kenya’s Wilson Kiprotich Kebenei won the Stramilano Half Marathon with 1:00:11 (1345 points) and moved up 7 places. Besides Baldini, South-African Hendrick Ramaala and Moroccan Jaouad Gharib are the only non-Kenyans in the Top-20 of the Men’s Road Running Event Ranking, and so it comes as no surprise that another Kenyan, Felix Limo, stepped up 9 places to 3rd boosting his score by 51 points with a third place finish in Rotterdam with 2:09:01 (1280 points).

Martin Lel of Kenya was the surprise winner in London defeating not only Baldini, but also compatriots Evans Rutto and Paul Tergat. Lel took the biggest step up in the Top-20 rising 19 places from 24th to 5th. The 23-year-old former World Half Marathon champion crossed the line in 2:07:26 (1353 points).

Website: IAAF.org.