Posted: June 2, 2005

Athletics: Bekele And Klüft Are Top Performers Of May - IAAF World Rankings

Monte Carlo – For the second time this year, Kenenisa Bekele has turned in the Top Performance of the month, following his earlier success in March. The Ethiopian left it very late this time, as his winning performance came on 30 May in Hengelo where he attempted to break his own World 10,000m record, but just missed it due to bad weather. Bekele’s winning time of 26:28.72 earned him 1388 points, and was also the Top Performance of May.

Amongst the women, Carolina Klüft overcame her rivals, and just like Bekele, did so in the last days of the month, as she comfortably won the annual combined events meeting in Götzis with 6824 points (1357 points) to claim top female performer of the month status.

Back in April, both men’s and women’s top track performances came from the 10,000m race at Barakaldo in Spain and in May both men’s and women’s top junior performances were registered at the Doha Super GP, over the distance of 3000m. For the men, Augustine Kiprono Choge of Kenya finished second in 7:28.78 (1367 points), while on the women’s side Gelete Burika Bati of Ethiopia finished third in 8:39.90 (1284 points) to record the best women’s junior performance in May.

In other men’s categories, US shot putter Reese Hoffa had the best field event performance of May by winning in Doha with 21.29m (1338 points). Luke Kibet of Kenya was the best man on the road, as he won the Berlin 25km race in 1:13.51 (1237 points), and Russia’s Aleksey Voyevodin was the best race walker in May after winning the 50km event at the European Cup in Miskolc, Hungary with 3:41:03 (1298 points)

In the remaining women’s categories, Delloreen Ennis-London was the best on the track. The Jamaican hurdler ran a season’s best 12.77 seconds (1319 points) to win in Doha. Morocco’s Asmae Leghzaoui won the Cleveland 10km road race (31:10 - 1234 points) to turn in the best performance of her category, while Russian Olimpiada Ivanova is the best female race walker in May after she won the European Cup in Miskolc with 1:28:18 (1274 points).

While there are two new leaders in various Event Rankings this week, there are no significant changes among the frontrunners in the “Weeks on top” category. Felix Sánchez and Maria Mutola still lead the men’s and women’s list respectively, with Carolina Klüft and Stefan Holm quite a way back in second 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 the above categories. These top performances can well danger the event leaders, as some of them have been ranked number one for a long time. Via the link below you may 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.

Complete rankings: IAAF.org.