Monaco - A busy week in the Athletics calendar brought many changes to the latest edition of the IAAF World Rankings, as Stockholm, London and Linz all staged world-class meetings.

Reigning World Indoor champion Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia improved her own Pole Vault world record last week in London. The 22-year-old became the first woman to clear 4.90m (1445 points) on her way to victory. With this result, Isinbayeva regained the lead in the Event Rankings over compatriot Svetlana Feofanova, and also took a giant step in the Women’s Overall Rankings moving up from 10th to 3rd. Feofanova finished second at the Crystal Palace Norwich Union London GP with 4.80m (1340 points) and whilst she lost first place in the Event Rankings, she still moved up in the Overall from 8th to 7th.

One does not need to set a world record to stride through the Event Rankings and take the lead, as young Jamaican Asafa Powell learned after his win in London over the weekend. Powell – only 22 years of age – won in 9.91seconds (1389 points) despite a minor headwind of –0.3m/s. The result allowed the Jamaican to jump from 6th place to 1st in the Men’s 100m Event Rankings, and rise to 41st in the Men’s Overall Rankings.

Aziz Zakari also made his presence felt in the 100m Event Rankings by winning at the Stockholm DN Galan with 10.00 seconds (1349 points) well clear of American Scott Leonard in second with 10.13seconds (1281 points). As a result, Zakari moved into the Top-10 of the Event Rankings in 8th place, while Leonard – who also ran at Crystal Palace and finished third with 10.04, 1311 points – moved up a massive 15 places to 19th.

Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie demonstrated why he should not be written off before the upcoming Olympic Games. The defending 10,000m Olympic champion won the 5000m in London in a time of 12:55.51 (1383 points) to climb back into second place in the Event Rankings behind compatriot Kenenisa Bekele. “Gebre” also stepped up to 9th in the Men’s Overall Rankings.

Another distance runner moving up to second place in the Event Rankings is Paul Korir. The 27-year-old Kenyan ran the mile well under the magic 4-minute mark when winning at Crystal Palace with 3:49.84 (1343 points). Korir moved up one spot to 2nd, while his compatriot Cornelius Chirchir took two steps to 7th resulting from his 5th place finish in London with 3:50.82 (1281 points).

Reigning World champion and former World Indoor champion in the Long Jump, Dwight Phillips, provided the highlight of the Linz Gugl meeting. The American jumped 8.60m (1350 points) for the win and increased his lead at the head of the Event Rankings. In the Overall Rankings, Phillips ‘jumped’ 14 places to 29th.

Britain’s Christopher Rawlinson is shaping up for Athens. The home-crowd favorite won the 400m hurdles at Crystal Palace in 48.48seconds (1340 points) and moved up two places to 3rd in the Event Rankings.

There are a number of changes in the Top-10 of the Men’s Triple Jump Event Rankings this week. The surprise result came in Stockholm, where Romania’s Marian Oprea defeated Christian Olsson on his home soil. Oprea won the meet with 17.30m (1327 points) to Olsson’s 17.28m (1300 points) and moved up a place to 3rd in the Event Rankings as well as gaining ten spots in the Men’s Overall Rankings to rise to 74th.

Leevan Sands of the Bahamas finished fourth in Stockholm with 16.91m (1236 points), before taking second place at Crystal Palace with 17.41m (1314 points). Sands also moved up one place to 4th in the Event Rankings, and 37 places to 81st in the Men’s Overall Rankings.

Away from Stockholm and London, Russia’s Danil Burkenya had the longest jump of the week with 17.68m (1287 points) at the Tula Russian Championships. Burkenya moved up a spot to 6th in the Event Rankings.

The winner in Crystal Palace – much to the delight of the home crowd – was Britain’s Phillips Idowu. The 26-year-old jumped 17.47m (1346 points) for the win, and shot from 23rd to 10th in the Event Rankings.

The Women’s Long Jump Event Rankings also experienced quite a shakeup this week. Irina Simagina had to settle for second at the Tula Russian Championships despite jumping 7.27m (1321 points) into a slight headwind of –0.4m/s. In the Event Rankings however, Simagina moved up three places to 3rd to complete the all-Russian podium for the Event.

In Stockholm, home-crowd favorite Carolina Klüft won with 6.85m (1305 points) and moved up three places to 9th, while American Grace Upshaw in second with 6.71m (1249 points) edged up one place to 7th.

At Crystal Palace it was another home winner as Jade Johnson took first place with 6.65m (1261 points) to move up three places to 11th, while Australian Bronwyn Thompson took third place at both events to step up two spots to 10th. She finished with 6.63m (1222 points) in Stockholm, and 6.57m (1212 points) in London.

In the Men’s 400m Event Rankings, American Derrick Brew moved up five places to 6th following his 3rd place in Stockholm – 45.28seconds, 1273 points, and 4th place in London – 45.40seconds, 1256 points.  In the latter meet 5th place went to Davian Clarke of Jamaica with a time of 45.48seconds (1240 points), who moved up two places to 7th.

Selected noteworthy changes:

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