As expected, Asafa Powell has overtaken Kenenisa Bekele and Saif Saaeed Shaheen to become the first Jamaican athlete to be ranked number one in the Overall IAAF World Ranking.
Bekele and Shaheen both dropped points this week by not backing up their performances from last year, while at the same time, Powell registered a blazing performance in Ostrava by winning the Super Grand Prix in 9.85 (1408 points).
Powell’s 1408 points is the best for any performance so far this year, not to mention that the race took place in a chilling temperature of 10 degrees. Powell therefore leads the Men’s Overall Ranking ahead of Shaheen of Qatar and Christian Olsson of Sweden who moved into third place as Bekele dropped to fourth. This is the Ethiopian’s lowest ranking position since August 2003, just before the Paris World Championships.
Shaheen also dropped out of the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase Event Ranking
for not having registered at least six performances during the past 365
days. The reigning World champion and World record holder will be
looking to return to his number one event position after competing in
Athens at the Super Grand Prix.
For the time being Paul Kipsiele Koech leads the Event Ranking with a string of seven Kenyans close behind him. However, it was Frenchman Boubdallah “Bob” Tahri and Radoslaw Poplawski of Poland who stole the show in Ostrava. Tahri won with 8:18.12 (1319 points) to move up three places to 9th in the Event Ranking, while Poplawski in second with 8:20.25 (1289 points) improved six places to 15th.
While Powell extended his lead at the top of the Men’s 100m Event
Ranking, Deji Aliu and Michael Frater both moved up a place to 12th and
13th respectively. Aliu finished 4th in Ostrava with 10.22 (1232 points) just behind Frater in 3rd with 10.20 (1249 points).
In the Women’s 100m Event Ranking, Ivet Lalova of Bulgaria moved up one
spot to 4th after she shattered Jarmila Kratochvilova’s meet record in
Ostrava with 11.03 (1326 points). In the Women’s 200m Event Ranking,
Allyson Felix of the United States moved up one place to tie with Lalova in 3rd, after she won in Monterrey with 22.31 (1251 points).
Sergey Makarov is the new leader in the Men’s Javelin Throw Event
Ranking. The reigning World champion moved up from 3rd place to take
over at the top following his performance in Ostrava. In the absence of
World record holder Jan Zelezny, Makarov had to battle with a pair of
Finnish throwers; Tero Pitkämäki and Esko Mikkola. Makarov ended up
winning the meet with a new world leading mark of 88.84 (1345 points),
while Pitkämäki was second with 83.19 (1243 points), ahead of his
compatriot Mikkola who finished with 79.97 (1186 points). Pitkämäki
moved up three places to 5th in the Event Ranking, while Mikkola edged
up one spot to 9th.
Reigning Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy dropped two places to 3rd
allowing Wilfred Bungei of Kenya to take sole control of the Men’s 800m
Event Ranking. Borzakovskiy was also unable to defend his title from
last year’s Bergen Bislett Games due to a difference in competition
calendars. He will have a chance to make up for the lost meet in Athens
tonight. Borzakovskiy also dropped to 43rd in the Men’s Overall Ranking.
Borzakovskiy’s training partner and reigning European Indoor 800m
champion Dmitriy Bogdanov moved up six places to 14th in the Event
Ranking after finishing second in Ostrava with 1:46.46 (1249 points).
In the Women’s 5000 – 10 000m Event Ranking, Kenya’s Priscilla Jepleting moved up seven places to 9th after finishing second in Ostrava with 15:04.10 (1298 points) in her first 5000m race since September.
