Tirunesh Dibaba crosses the line in a World record (© Victah Sailer)
Dibaba’s World record is the top performance of January
Monaco - Not surprisingly Ethiopia’s Tirunesh Dibaba is the Top Performer of January based on the IAAF World Rankings. The 19-year-old reigning World champion and Olympic bronze medallist ran the fastest 5000m time ever in Boston last week. Her time of 14:32.93 is worth 1357 points, which is clearly the best performance of the month.
Jelena Celnova-Prokopcuka also turned in a strong performance in the first month of the year. The 28-year-old Latvian improved her personal best by more than a minute and set a new national record when she won the Osaka Marathon in 2:22:56 (1338 points). Celnova-Prokopcuka had the best women’s Road Running performance for January. On the men’s side, Haile Gebrselassie was the best on the road. The former World and Olympic champion won the Almería Half Marathon in 1:01:46 (1199 points).
The best male performance came from Ruslan Yeremenko of Ukraine. The 26-year-old pole vaulter improved his personal best by 4 centimetres when he won in Stuttgart with 5.84m (1309 points) and set a World leading mark for the indoor season.
On the track, Yeremenko’s compatriot, Ivan Heshko set the pace for January. Silver medallist at last year’s world Indoor Championships in Budapest, Heshko clocked 3:37.40 (1299 points) to win his opening race of the season in Stuttgart.
The best female field performance came from Russia’s national record holder high jumper Anna Chicherova. Also a silver medallist in Budapest last year, Chicherova cleared a season’s best World leading 1.96m (1250 points) to win in Moscow two weeks ago.
In the Race Walking department Italy’s Alex Schwazer achieved the best men’s performance; 3:56:59 (1196 points) for his win in the 50km event in Augusta, while María José Poves Novella of Spain was the best among the women’s with her win in Badalona; 1:33:17 (1153 points) for the 20km event.
Last but not least, the juniors also turned in some notable performances early in the season. Morocco’s Abdelaati Iguider clocked 3:39:74 in the 1500m in Stuttgart for fourth place (1226 points), while on the women’s side, American sprinter Cleo Tyson drew all the attention when she blazed through her 55m race in 6.80seconds (1171 points) in Knoxville to set a new personal best during the first week of the year.
No changes in the “Weeks on top” category. Mozambique’s Maria Mutola is still well ahead of others by having been ranked number one for 214 weeks now, ever since the IAAF World Rankings have been introduced in January 2001.
The IAAF World Rankings “Top performer of the month” is released on the first week of each month collecting the results of the previous four weeks and dividing them into the above categories.
Via the link below you may also find the top six male and female athletes who have been leading their respective Event Rankings for the most number of consecutive weeks. Please note that the IAAF World Rankings have been officially published since 1 January 2001.
