Posted: July 11, 2006

Athletics: Soboleva and Pitkämäki rise to the top in latest IAAF World Rankings

Yelena Soboleva of Russia after her 1500m win in Athens (courtesy of tsiklitiria.org)

Monte-Carlo - Yelena Soboleva of Russia and Finland’s Tero Pitkämäki are the new Event Ranking leaders respectively in the Women’s 1500m and men’s Javelin Throw. The Russian replaces previous world number one Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain and now holds a seven point advantage after finishing second in the Paris Golden League meeting with 3:56.43 (1379 points), while Pitkämäki won in Paris with 89.07m (1379 points) and overtook the reigning Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen by four points.

It was only a week ago, that Saif Saaeed Shaheen returned to the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase Event Ranking but this week the Qatari runner is out once again. Shaheen does not have the minimum required six results over the past 365-days and is therefore not eligible to be ranked in his Event.

Shaheen’s drop allowed Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele to move back into second place of the Men’s Overall Ranking, while the Qatari’s absence and a great run in Paris allowed reigning Olympic champion Ezekiel Kemboi to take control of the Steeplechase Event Ranking, rising from third to first after winning the Golden League meet in Paris with 8:09.29 (1389 points). Kemboi also improved significantly in the Men’s Overall Ranking by jumping from 55th to 26th.

Ivan Heshko is not only the sole European athlete in the Top-10 of the Men’s 1500m Event Ranking but this week he moved into second place behind Daniel Kipchirchir Komen of Kenya. The Ukrainian won in Paris with the second fastest time in the world this year: 3:31.08 (1399 points), and overtook Bernard Lagat by three points. At the same time, Portugal’s Rui Silva slipped out of the Top-10 into 11th place, and reigning World champion Rashid Ramzi also dropped two spots to 6th.

There has been quite a change in the Men’s 110m Hurdles Event Ranking this week, due to some outstanding running from Terrence Trammell. The US hurdler rocketed into second place in the Event Ranking from his previous position of 5th after setting the world’s fastest time this year in the Stade-de-France with 13.06 (1408 points). French World champion Ladji Doucouré was unable to take advantage of the home track and now shares third place with Allen Johnson and reigning Olympic champion Xiang Liu.

Olympic Games and World Indoor High Jump champion Yelena Slesarenko of Russia is up to third place this week, replacing Chaunte Howard of the United States in the Women’s High Jump Event Ranking. The 24-year-old cleared 2.00m (1364 points) for the first time since she won her World Indoor title in Moscow this winter in March.

There are a number of changes in the Top-10 of the Men’s Overall Ranking as well. While Bekele is back to second place, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell moves from 28th to 9th following his 9.85 (1441 points) in Paris, while Jeremy Wariner of the USA is also up five spots to 7th after winning the Golden League meet with 43.91 (1422 points). 

Please click here for the latest IAAF World Rankings

Selected changes:

(In brackets the last week's position and the last week's Ranking Scores of the athletes)

Source: IAAF

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