Posted: April 11, 2006

Athletics: Korir Breaks Into The Road Running Top-10 In The Latest IAAF World Rankings

Monte-Carlo - The main changes this week in the IAAF World Rankings can be found in the Event Rankings for the Men’s and Women’s Road Running – Marathon, and Men’s Race Walking.

The most significant improvement came on Sunday afternoon when Sammy Korir came home in first place to win the Rotterdam Marathon. Korir, who has the second fastest time ever to his name from 2003, won with a time of 2:06:38 (1369 points), and in the process moved up over thirty places to 7th in the Men’s Road Running – Marathon Event Ranking. He is now the third best Kenyan road runner behind Martin Lel and Patrick Ivuti.

The 34-year-old’s result is even more impressive if one considers that Korir already competed in the Tokyo marathon in February (finished third with 2:10:07 – 1257 points), furthermore, he has run three marathons in the past six months, with the worst being 2:10:53.

Ethiopia’s Dejene Birhanu finished fourth behind Korir in Rotterdam and also took a huge step in the Event Ranking by rising from 68th to 13th place. The 25-year-old ran his first ever marathon in December, but this time Birhanu improved his personal best by over three minutes, finishing in 2:08:46 (1270 points). Birhanu’s new Ranking makes him the second best Ethiopian road runner behind the Event leader Haile Gebrselassie.

Birhanu’s compatriot, Gashaw Melese Asfaw won the Paris Marathon a few hours before the Dutch race finished on Sunday. Melese broke away from the leading group at the 30km mark and never looked back, winning in 2:08:03 (1340 points) which is also a new personal best. The 27-year-old was competing in his second marathon this year and took over a minute off his previous best time, and rose ten places to 23rd in the Event Ranking.

Full details of the latest changes in the IAAF World Rankings can be found by following this link: IAAF.org.

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