Posted: June 20, 2006

Athletics: Russian Championships bring main improvements in the latest IAAF World Rankings

Monte-Carlo - The Russian Championships in Tula were the main source of improvements in the latest IAAF World Rankings, especially on the women’s side. Yelena Soboleva stepped up two places to third in the Women’s 1500m Event Ranking. The World Indoor record holder won in Tula with 4:00.87 (1259 points), improving her previous personal best which was set last year at the same competition.

Also in the Women’s 1500m Event Ranking, France’s Bouchra Benthami-Ghezielle dropped to ninth, allowing Natalya Yevdokimova (RUS), Sarah Jamieson (AUS) and Carmen Douma-Hussar (CAN) to move up a single spot each. A new entrant into the Event Ranking is World Indoor 3000m record holder Liliya Shobukhova. The 28-year-old Russian, finished 5th in Tula in the 1500m with 4:03.90 (1209 points), and stands in 30th place this week.

Other results from Tula affected the Women’s Long Jump Event Ranking. Oksana Udmurtova strengthened her second place by winning with 6.97m (1253 points), while Lyudmila Kolchanova’s second place finish with the same mark (1242 points) enabled her to overtake Spain’s Concepción Montaner for 9th place.

Double World 3000m Steeplechase champion Saif Saaeed Shaheen has dropped out of the World Rankings. The Qatari runner lost his Event Ranking lead as his victory from last year’s Tsiklitiria Super Grand Prix in Athens turned over one-year-old. Without that result, Shaheen does not have the minimum number (6) of steeplechase competitions over the past year to be included in the IAAF World Rankings. The new Event Ranking leader is Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi who has ten results to his name over the past 365-days. Kemboi only moved into second place last week after his win in Lille.

Jamaica’s Asafa Powell, who after equalling his own World 100m record moved into the Top-10 of the Men’s Overall Ranking just a week ago, has, like Shaheen, also lost the benefit of the points gained from his World record performance at last year’s Tsiklitiria meet. The Jamaican holds on to second place in the 100m Event Ranking behind leader Justin Gatlin but has slipped back to 31st in the Overall Ranking.

Complete world rankings are available at: IAAF.org.

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