Posted: March 7, 2006

Athletics: Adam Nelson The New Leader In The Shot Put As Olsen Slips To Second in IAAF Rankings

Monte Carlo - World Champion Adam Nelson has risen to the top of Men’s Shot Put Event Rankings this week, as the last IAAF World Rankings are released ahead of the upcoming World Indoor Championships in Moscow.

Nelson was able to take control of the Event Rankings without competing this week, as previous leader Joachim Olsen of Denmark dropped points. The Dane won the European Indoor Championships in Madrid a year ago, but as his result (21.19m, 1332 points) turned over 365-days-old, those no longer account towards his present score. Olsen is not the only top athlete to drop points this week, others slipping back in the Rankings include Dutchman Rutger Smith, reigning World 110m hurdles champion Ladji Doucouré, Russia’s Yaroslav Rybakov, Spain’s Joan Lino Martinez and Germany’s Tobias Unger and Kirsten Bolm.

Sweden’s Carolina Klüft not only dropped points from Madrid, but also suffered a serious downturn in the Women’s Overall Rankings. The World and Olympic Heptathlon Champion fell from 3rd to 9th, while the Overall leader, Yelena Isinbayeva, also dropped points and is now barely ahead of Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba. The Russian’s advantage is down to 4 points, which means that the African is well within striking distance for the top spot in women’s athletics.

Although most changes were caused by the Madrid performances running out of shelf-life, a number of athletes posted top times and marks since the last edition of the Rankings thereby improving their scores.

The full IAAF World Rankings can be seen at IAAF.org.

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