Monte-Carlo - Taking a break from its usual off-season fortnightly publication, the IAAF World Rankings are released as a special edition this week due to last weekend’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Fukuoka.

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele completed his 5th double in a row, by winning both the short (1400 points) and the long (1400 points) races over the weekend. Because of the variety of courses and differing weather conditions, which some times are extreme as was the case with the wind on Sunday in Fukuoka – the World Rankings do not calculate the Result Score for Cross Country meets, but use a previously determined scale of Performance Scores - for example 1400 points for the winner - which takes no account of the finish time.

With the double victory, Bekele stretched his lead at the top of the Men’s 5000 – 10,000m Event Ranking (which includes similar events ranging from the 3000m to the World Cross Country Championships). The results from last year’s World Cross Country became out-of-date only a week ago, thereby costing the Ethiopian three points, which he regained this week by defending his titles.

Bekele’s compatriot, Tirunesh Dibaba also increased her lead at the top of her Event Ranking for the very same reason. The 20-year-old comfortably won the women’s long race (1400 points) ahead of Lornah Kiplagat of the Netherlands (1365 points), and is now only 17 points behind Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva at the top of the women’s Overall Ranking.

Dibaba dropped out of the women’s short race on Sunday after the first lap, allowing her compatriot and former World Junior Cross Country Champion Gelete Burka Bati to claim the gold (1400 points). With the win, Burka moved into the top-20 of the Women’s 5000 – 10,000m Event Ranking and is currently in 17th place, two spots ahead of Australia’s Benita Johnson, who finished 4th in both events (1320 points each) in Japan. In the Women’s Overall Ranking Burka also improved moving into 77th place, the first time she has been in the top-100.

The rest of the podium finishers were Kenya’s Prisca Jepleting Ngetich and Meselech Melkamu of Ethiopia. Jepleting won silver in the women’s short race (1365 points) and moved up five places to 7th in the Event Ranking, while Melkamu won bronze in both events (1340 points each) and improved three places to 6th in the Event Ranking, and more than 30 places in the Women’s Overall Ranking to 38th position. 

On the men’s side, yet another Ethiopian Sileshi Sihine also moved up in the Event Ranking, from 4th to 3rd. Sihine fell early on in the short race and had no chance of finishing on the podium, but recovered well for Sunday and won the silver medal (1365 points) behind Bekele in the longer event. As a result of his second place finish, Sihine moved up in the Men’s Overall Ranking to 20th.

There were also a number of strong road running and race walking performances over the past week, coming from the half marathons in Berlin and Milano, as well as the Rio Maior IAAF Race Walking Challenge in Portugal.

Reigning Olympic Marathon champion Stefano Baldini was forced to settle for 3rd at the Stramilano Half Marathon over the weekend. The 34-year-old finished the race in 1:01:14 (1271 points), while the victory went to Kenya’s Paul Kimaiyo Kimugul in 1:00:49 (1318 points). Even with third place, Baldini took a huge step in the Men’s Road Running – Marathon Event Ranking from 63rd to 21st, while Kimugul reaped the benefits of his win by moving up two places to 15th.

On the women’s side, Deena Kastor (USA) re-entered the Event Ranking in 6th place just behind Japan’s Mizuki Noguchi. Kastor finished second in the Berlin Half Marathon in 1:07:34 (1279 points) and is now the top ranked US Road Runner.

The latest round of the Race Walking Challenge took place in Portugal, where Germany’s Melanie Seeger took the honours. The 29-year-old from Potsdam finished in 1:29:15 (1263 points) ahead of Romania’s Claudia Stef (1:30:00 – 1240 points) and Australia’s Jane Saville (1:30:23 – 1225 points). Seeger moved up six places to 6th, while Stef swapped places with Elisa Rigaudo and moved into 3rd. Saville also moved up one spot to 10th.

On the men’s side, Australia’s Luke Adams finished third with 1:20:49 (1231 points), ahead of Tunisia’s Hatem Ghoula (1:21:34 – 1201 points) and Italy’s Alex Schwazer (1:21:38 – 1195 points). The result allowed Adams to move up two places to 14th, while Ghoula improved to 8th and Schwazer took four steps to 5th place this week.

Please click here for the latest IAAF World Rankings

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