Posted: May 23, 2006

Athletics: Gatlin Overtakes Bekele As Overall Best Male Athlete In Latest IAAF World Rankings

Monte-Carlo - Reigning World and Olympic 100m champion, and co-World record holder Justin Gatlin (USA) is the new Overall Best Male Athlete based on the IAAF World Rankings.

The 24-year-old sprinter ran 9.77 seconds (1486 points) at the IAAF World Athletics Tour meet in Doha, Qatar, to equal Asafa Powell’s World record from Athens last summer. Thereby Gatlin increased his lead over his Jamaican counterpart in the 100m Event Ranking, and also claimed top spot in the Men’s Overall Rankings, passing Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, the previous leader.

Besides the new Men’s Overall Leader, there are also two new Event leaders this week with high category meets taking place all over the world as the main outdoor season gets properly underway

Wallace Spearmon (USA) and Marian Oprea (ROM) have both taken control of their respective Event Rankings this week. In the men’s 200m, Spearmon clocked a world leading time of 20.06 (1312 points) to win the Carson Adidas Track Classic in the United States and moved from third place to take the lead in the Men’s 200m Event Ranking ahead of his compatriots Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin.

In the men’s Triple Jump, Oprea won in Doha with 17.29m (1342 points) overtaking reigning World champion Walter Davis (USA) to become the first Romanian male athlete to head an Event Ranking since the introduction of the IAAF World Rankings in 2001.

However, the 23-year-old is not the only athlete from his country to do well over the past two weeks. Cristina Casandra improved three places to second in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase Event Ranking after finishing fourth in Doha with 9:45.76 (1228 points). Casandra overtook Jamaica’s Mardrea Hyman and Hungary’s Lívia Tóth, while Kenya’s Jeruto Kiptum re-entered the Event Ranking in third place after winning in Qatar with 9:35.66 (1302 points).

Full details of the latest changes in the IAAF World Rankings can be found at: IAAF.org.

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