One year ago, only three athletes ended 2005 boasting a win streak of 10 or more competitions. When 2007 begins, five athletes will resume competition riding streaks of 13 or more, topped by Saif Saaeed Shaheen’s 24 in the 3000m Steeplechase and Virgilijus Alekna’s 22 in the Discus Throw.

24 straight for Shaheen, 22 for Alekna

With four wins in as many races in his specialty this season, Shaheen, the World record holder, extended his unbeaten streak in the water and barrier race to 24, currently the longest win streak in the sport. The 24-year-old Kenyan-born Qatari hasn’t lost in the event he has dominated in recent years since the African Championships on 8 August 2002. With the Asian Games coming up in December, there is little reason to doubt that Shaheen will raise his tally even higher before the New Year bells toll.

The 34-year-old Alekna has been no less dominant, particularly this year. The Lithuanian’s streak of 22 wins dates back to his runner-up finish in Tallinn on 16 August 2005. This year, the two-time World and two-time Olympic champion won each of his 16 competitions, including his first European title.

While notching 20 straight wins or more seems to be becoming increasingly more difficult, a trio of athletes could threaten that mark in 2006.

Olympic hammer throw champion Koji Murofushi of Japan returned from injury this season with a bang, winning each of his eight meets, adding to a nine meet streak he began at the tail end of 2003 which now rests at 17.

Klüft unbeaten in five years

But considering the limited number of Combined Event competitions at which it is either physically or realistically possible to compete in each year, the record of World and Olympic champion Carolina Klüft is perhaps most impressive among the currently undefeated. The Swede extended her win streak in the Heptathlon to 16 this year after yet another perfect three-for-three season - Gotzis, the European Cup, and the European Championships. Her streak began on 22 July 2001 when she captured the European Junior title.

Sanya Richards, one of three athletes who produced a perfect six-for-six record in Golden League races, was undefeated the entire outdoor season over the full lap, extending her current win streak outdoors in the 400 to 16. Among her 13 wins this year were the year’s five fastest performances, capped by a spectacular 48.70 U.S. record at the World Cup.

Five approaching double figures

Three athletes will begin 2006 seeking their tenth straight victory in a single event. Jamaican Sherone Simpson, this year’s world leader at both the 100 and 200 (10.82/22.00), has won her last nine races in the shorter dash, oftentimes in convincing fashion. Michelle Perry of the U.S., the reigning World champion in the 100m Hurdles has also won each of her last nine appearances, while Tatyana Lebedeva hasn’t lost a Triple Jump competition since her runner-up finish at the Russian indoor championships, ending the season with nine straight as well.

Suffering just one loss since finishing second at the World Indoor Championships, Panamanian Irving Saladino’s season-capping victory at the World Cup was his eighth in a row. While Meseret Defar spent much of 2006 chasing – and sometimes beating - her fellow-Ethiopian rival Tirunesh Dibaba over 5000m, she has extended her unbeaten streak in the 3000 to eight after five victories over the shorter distance this season indoors and out, including World indoor gold in Moscow in March and a national record and world-leading 8:24.66 in Stockholm in July.

Single-season perfection in 2006, almost

In the 100 metres, Asafa Powell was without peer in 2006. The 23-year-old Jamaican won each of his 16 finals in the 100 metres while twice equalling the 9.77 World record he first set in Athens in June 2005. His streak ended however in most undramatic fashion after a false start disqualification last month in Yokohama.

In 2005, World and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner ended his season with a slight injury at the World Athletics Final, finishing a distant eighth. This year his season ended with a DNF in Shanghai late last month, but in between, he had little company at the finish line in 11 straight races.

End of the line in 2006

Topping the list of those whose streaks were brought to a halt in 2006 was Sweden’s World High Jump champion Kajsa Bergqvist. After an injury ended her 2004 Olympic season after just one outdoor contest, Bergqvist bounced back with a vengeance in 2005, winning each of her 13 competitions, including the elusive World outdoor gold medal. She increased it to 18 this year, including a 2.08 World Indoor record, before a fourth place finish at the Prefontaine Classic in May ended her victory momentum.

In addition to Bergqvist, another quartet of 2005 World champions also reached the end of winning line this year.

World Shot Put champion Nadezhda Ostapchuk began the year with 14 consecutive wins, and added a pair to her tally before finishing out of the medals at the World Indoor Championships last March. Osleidis Menéndez of Cuba, the World and Olympic champion in the Javelin Throw, began the year with a six meet win streak, and added ten more before a third place finish in Athens in July ended her streak at 16. American Bershawn Jackson, the World 400m Hurdles champion, racked up 13 straight wins before his runner-up finish at the U.S. championships in June. World Hammer Throw champion Ivan Tikhon of Belarus began his season with a nine competition win streak, but it ended with his first competition of the year.

Bob Ramsak for the IAAF

 NB. The win streak calculations are based on ‘finals’ only.