Kipchoge and Chizhenko turn in the best performances for January 2006

wide indoor season, the top performances in the first month of 2006 came from the track, moreover the indoor distance runners. Eliud Kipchoge and Yuliya Chizhenko earned the most points in January by winning in Karlsruhe and Moscow respectively.

The 21-year-old Kipchoge ran the 3000m at his first ever indoor meet, and won it with 7:33.07 (1345 points) on the clock. With the victory the Olympic bronze medallist became the Top Men Performer of January for 2006.

On the women’s side it was Russia’s Yuliya Chizhenko who overcame all of her opponents early on in the season. The 26-year-old set a new European Record for the indoor 1000m when she won at the Russian Winter in Moscow with 2:32.16 (1357 points).

Chizhenko’s result was not the only outstanding performance in the Russian capital. Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic cleared 2.00m (1294 points) to turn in the best field event performance of the month, while the same award on the men’s side goes to Romanian triple jumper Marian Oprea who won in Karlsruhe with 17.38m (1297 points).

Kenya’s Catherine Ndereba has run yet another Marathon and won again. The 33-year-old has competed in three marathons and two half marathons since last April, and did not only finish them all, but won three out of five. In January the Kenyan won in Osaka with 2:25:05 (1310 points) to turn in the best women’s performance of the month.

There was also a remarkable performance in the men’s Road Running category. Haile Gebrselassie set a new World Record for the Half Marathon in Tempe, Arizona. The Ethiopian finished the event in 58 minutes and 55 seconds to earn 1335 points and claim the best Road Running performance of the month honours.

For the first time since the introduction of the Top Performer of the Month tables, an American athlete turned in the best performance in the Race Walking category. Kevin Eastler - a 28-year-old Air Force athlete - won the US 30km Championships in Chula Vista, California in 2:12:53 (1135 points).

On the women’s side it was Australia’s Cheryl Webb who out-walked the competition in January. Webb won the 10km walk at the Graham Briggs Memorial meet in Hobart with 46:47 on the clock, earning her 1138 points.

The best junior performances came from Tariku Bekele on the men’s side and Danijela Grgic on the women’s. The Ethiopian finished 4th in the 2 Miles in Boston just a few days after his 19th birthday, with 8:37.56 (1199 points) on the clock, while the 17-year-old Croatian Grgic placed 3rd in the 400m in Karlsruhe with 53.77 (1194 points) to her name.

There are no changes in the “Weeks on top” category, as the indoor track and field season has just kicked off and athletes are not likely drop points in the first month of the year. The Swedish duo of Carolina Klüft and Stefan Holm are still heading the list with Kenenisa Bekele, Dwight Phillips and Virgilijus Alekna trailing the Olympic High Jump champion in the men’s race, as Osleidys Menéndez, Yelena Isinbayeva, and Natalya Sadova are trying to keep up the pace with the invincible heptathlete.

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. These top performances could well threaten the event leaders, as some of them have been ranked number one for a long time. 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.