Monte Carlo - European 1500 metres Champion Sureyya Ayhan ended her season on yet another high note. After winning the European title in style in Munich, the young Turkish heroine won the IAAF World Cup in Madrid over last weekend. Her time of 4:02.57 (1360 Performance Score) was enough to lift her from fourth in the Event Rankings to be the Number 1 ranked Female 1500m runner in the World. Only fours points behind Ayhan in second place, is last week’s leader, Alesya Turova of Belorussia. Ayhan also moved up in the Women’s Overall Rankings from 34th to 16th.

The men’s Top Performer of the Week honour belongs to another European Champion from Munich, Robert Fazekas of Hungary. Throwing 71.25m (1433 PS) to win the Discus Throw in Madrid extended Fazekas’ lead at the head of the Event Rankings to eighty-one points ahead of South Africa’s Olympic bronze medallist Frantz Kruger, and also moved the Hungarian to 13th in the Men’s Overall Rankings from his previous spot in 32nd. Kruger finished a distant second behind Fazekas in Madrid with a throw of 66.78m (1323 PS), and moved into second place, overtaking Lithuania’s Olympic champion Virgilijus Alekna.

Double European sprint silver medallist Francis Obikwelu jumped four places to second in the Men’s 200m Event Rankings. The Nigerian-born sprinter now competing for Portugal won the World Cup 200m in 20.18 (1374 PS), ahead of Event Leader Frank Fredericks, the Commonwealth and African champion. The Namibian ran 20.20 (1346 PS) and rose two places to 22nd in the Overall Rankings. European Cup winner Marlon Devonish of Great Britain finished third in 20.32 (1312 PS) and consequently improved one place to 6th in the Rankings. US sprinter Ramon Clay finishing fourth with equal time to Devonish (1302 PS) also rose a spot to 8th.

Olympic 200m bronze medallist Susanthika Jayasinghe of Sri Lanka had a successful weekend in Madrid. She ran 11.20 in the 100m (1293 PS) to finish third and rose from 15th to 11th in the Event Rankings, then followed it up with a fourth place finish in the 200m with 22.82 on the clock (1279 PS) to re-enter the Rankings in 7th. Double individual Commonwealth sprint champion Debbie Ferguson of the Bahamas won the event in 22.49 (1354 PS), moving her up one place to second, while third place finisher Leonie Myriam Mani of Cameroon (22.81, 1290 PS) jumped from 17th to 9th.

European Champion Irina Korzhanenko of Russia took over at the top of the Women’s Shot Put Event Rankings. Korzhanenko won in Madrid with a throw of 20.20m (1345 PS) and rose from fourth to first.

The Men’s 400m Event Rankings were again comprehensively reshuffled after Madrid. While Commonwealth champion Michael Blackwood of Jamaica was able to defend his position and even increase his lead at the head of the table after his World Cup win (44.60, 1370 PS), the Ranking places behind him were certainly not stationary. Fawzi Dahash Al Shammary of Kuwait is back in second after finishing third in Madrid in 45.14 (1296 PS), overtaking both Leonard Byrd of the US and Greg Haughton of Jamaica. Byrd dropped to third, while Haughton is only fourth, with four points less than he had last week because of the 365-day-rule. Germany’s European champion Ingo Schultz is up three places this week to sixth. The German who also took the World silver last year, finished second in Madrid behind Blackwood in 44.86 (1328 PS).

Ivan Pedroso of Cuba rose three places to fourth in the Long Jump Event Rankings after his 8.19m jump took second place (1308 PS) in Madrid. 1999 World championships silver medallist Yago Lamela of Spain finished third in Madrid with 8.11m (1273 PS) to improve one place to 8th.

United States hurdler Sandra Cummings-Glover is up to second in the Women’s 400m Hurdles Event Rankings. Cummings-Glover finished second in Madrid to Event Leader Yulia Nosova-Pechonkina in 54.46 seconds (1342 PS) and overtook Australian youngster Jana Pittman, the Commonwealth champion. Pittman finished third in the Madrid race in 55.15 (1308 PS), but lost her second place Ranking position to the experienced American.

South-Africa’s World champion High-Jumper Hestrie Cloete strengthened her second position in the Event Rankings after winning in Madrid with 2.02meters (1400 PS). Event Leader Kajsa Bergqvist of Sweden finished second to Cloete with the same height (1375 PS), and is now only 23 points ahead of the South-African. Tisha Waller of the United States finished fourth in Madrid with 1.96m (1283 PS), and entered the Top-10 in 7th place, five spots up from her 12th place last week.

Commonwealth 100m champion Kim Collins of St. Kitts & Nevis is up one place to 5th in the Men’s 100m Event Rankings. Collins ran 10.06 (1351 PS) seconds to finish second in Madrid to Uchenna Emedolu of Nigeria in a dead-heat. Emedolu (1376 PS) rose three places to 9th. Despite finishing third in 10.09 (1326 PS) and increasing his point total by one, Francis Obikwelu of Portugal dropped a place to 6th behind Collins.

NB. Until further notice, the IAAF World Rankings will now be published every two weeks. Next - 8th October 2002.

Athlete Cnt Ranking position Difference
  23 Sept. 16 Sept. 

Men’s 100m    
Kim COLLINS SKN 5th 6th +1
Francis OBIKWELU POR 6th 5th -1
Uchenna EMEDOLU NGR 9th 12th +3
    
Men’s 200m    
Francis OBIKWELU POR 2nd 6th +4
Marlon DEVONISH GBR 6th 7th +1
Ramon CLAY USA 8th 9th +1
    
Men’s 400m    
Fawzi Dahash AL SHAMMARY KUW 2nd 4th +2
Leonard BYRD USA 3rd 2nd -1
Greg HAUGHTON JAM 4th 2nd -2
Ingo SCHULTZ GER 6th 9th +3
    
Men’s 800m    
Djabir SAID-GUERNI ALG 8th 10th +2
Antonio REINA ESP 12th 15th +3
    
Men’s 3000mSC    
Stephen Cheruiyot CHERONO KEN 2nd 3rd +1
Wilson Boit KIPKETER KEN 3rd 2nd -1
    
Men’s Long Jump    
Iván PEDROSO CUB 4th 7th +3
Yago LAMELA ESP 8th 9th +1
Hussein Taher AL SABEE KSA 10th 13th +3
    
Men’s Shot Put    
Justin ANLEZARK AUS 8th 16th +8
    
Men’s Discus Throw    
Frantz KRUGER RSA 2nd 3rd +1
Virgilijus ALEKNA LTU 3rd 2nd -1
        
Men’s Decathlon    
Tom PAPPAS USA 3rd 4th +1
    

Women’s 100m    
Susanthika JAYASINGHE SRI 11th 15th +4
    
Women’s 200m    
Debbie FERGUSON BAH 2nd 3rd +1
Kellie WHITE USA 3rd 2nd -1
Susanthika JAYASINGHE SRI 7th - 
Léonie Myriam MANI CMR 9th 17 +8
    
Women’s 800m    
Maria Teresa MARTÍNEZ ESP 4th 5th +1
Svetlana CHERKASOVA RUS 9th 12th +3
    
Women’s 1500m    
Söreyya AYHAN TUR 1st 4th +3
Alesya TUROVA BLR 2nd 1st -1
Suzy HAMILTON-FAVOR USA 3rd 2nd -1
    
Women’s 400mH    
Sandra CUMMINGS-GLOVER USA 2nd 3rd +1
Jana PITTMAN AUS 3rd 2nd -1
    
Women’s High Jump    
Tisha WALLER USA 7th 12th +5
    
Women’s Long Jump    
Concepción MONTANER ESP 5th 6th +1
    
Women’s Shot Put    
Irina KORZHANENKO RUS 1st 4th +3
Astrid KUMBERNUSS GER 2nd 1st -1
    
Women’s Discus Throw    
Katerina VOGGOLI GRE 6th 8th +2
    
Women’s Hammer Throw    
Yuan GU CHN 5th 8th +3
    
Women’s Heptathlon    
Austra SKUJYTÉ LTU 4th 5th +1
    
    
Men’s Overall Ranking    
Felix SÁNCHEZ DOM 4th 5th +1
Maurice GREENE USA 5th 4th -1
Anier GARCIA CUB 7th 8th +1
Dwain CHAMBERS GBR 8th 9th +1
Jonathan EDWARDS GBR 11th 10th -1
Róbert FAZEKAS HUN 13th 32nd +19
Frankie FREDERICKS NAM 22nd 24th +2
Roman ŠEBRLE CZE 23rd 7th -16
Adrián ANNUS HUN 26th 34th +8
Francis OBIKWELU POR 30th 36th +6
Michael BLACKWOOD JAM 34th 55th +21
Fawzi Dahash AL SHAMMARY KUW 72nd 85th +13
Yaroslav RYBAKOV RUS 77th 96th +19
Djabir SAID-GUERNI ALG 84th 105th +21
    
Women’s Overall Ranking    
Söreyya AYHAN TUR 16th 34th +18
Hestrie CLOETE RSA 19th 26th +7
Yulia NOSOVA-PECHONKINA RUS 30th 55th +25