Monte-Carlo - The 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, supplied the significant changes in the last edition of the IAAF World Rankings for 2006. Although there are no new Event Ranking leaders there are more than half-a-dozen changes in the Top-10 of various disciplines, including the Men’s Overall Ranking, where China’s Liu Xiang, leader of the 110m Hurdles Event Ranking, stepped up one place to 6th, following his Asian Games 110m Hurdles victory with 13.15 seconds (1365 points).

Hong Liu (CHN) moved up three places to 4th in the Women’s Race Walking Event Ranking after her win in Doha in the 20km event in 1:32:19 (1254 points). Another Chinese victor in Doha was Shuying Gao in the Women’s Pole Vault with 4.30m (1158 points) and as a result she improved two places to 18th in her Event Ranking, while Ling Li and Meiju Li moved into 8th and 19th places respectively in the Women’s Shot Put Event Ranking following their gold and silver medals in Doha.

Japanese athletes also fared well in Doha. Kumiko Ikeda won the Women’s Long Jump with 6.81m (1293 points) and improved two places to 7th in the Event Ranking, while on the men’s side, Shingo Suetsugu won the 200m in 20.60 (1274 points) and stepped up to 13th place in the Event Ranking, and Kenji Narisako won the 400m Hurdles in 48.78 (1324 points) to move up five places to 9th in the Event Ranking.

Double World champion Rashid Ramzi (BRN) returned to the 1500m Event Ranking. The 2005 Helsinki victor at 800m and 1500m, only competed in the latter event in Doha and finished third with 3:38.91 (1231 points), but it was enough to place him 12th in the Event Ranking.

In the Men’s 800m, Kuwait’s 24-year-old national record holder Mohammad Al Azemi finished second in 1:46:25 (1255 points) and leapt up to sixth in the Event Ranking.

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Selected changes:

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