New World Rankings (top ten)

[tdtb]

Who says we aren't the best? Four of the top five spots are ours. Way to go guys. As of July 6th.


1. (1.) Timothy MACK 72 USA 1372
2. (2.) Toby STEVENSON 76 USA 1336
3. (3.) Derek MILES 72 USA 1313
4. (4.) Tim LOBINGER 72 GER 1309
5. (8.) Brad WALKER 81 USA 1287
6. (5.) Igor PAVLOV 79 RUS 1285
7. (6.) Aleksandr AVERBUKH 74 ISR 1274
8. (10.) Rens BLOM 77 NED 1266
8. (7.) Lars BÖRGELING 79 GER 1266
10. (9.) Daniel ECKER 77 GER 1260

[roger/over]

Interesting. I wonder where that list came from.

Jalava's world lists (the top 20 are free at tilastopaja.net) and the IAAF Top Lists (IAAF.org) agree on the top ten. USA does have three, not four, of the top ten; but Mack is fifth, not first, Walker is second, not fifth, and Stevenson is third, not second. Australians, not shown in the above list, are first and fourth.

The top ten on which Jalava and IAAF are agreed:

1. Paul Burgess AUS 6.00
2. Brad Walker USA 5.90
3. Toby Stevenson USA 5.90
4. Steve Hooker AUS 5.87
5. Tim Mack USA 5.85
6. Daichi Sawano JPN 5.83
7. Tim Lobinger GER 5.80
8. Nels Blom NED 5.80
9. Derek Miles USA 5.80
10. Giuseppe Gibilisco, ITA 5.80

The IAAF list also includes Vladyslav Revenko of UKR at 5.80m. Both lists use date of accomplishment to break ties, as in Walker and Stevenson at 5.90 and the quartet at 5.80m.

[tdtb]

Points on the IAAF is where I got it. You are looking at heights. If you go to the IAAF. ORG then to then to World Rankings pick Pole Vault and you will see.

[tdtb]

http://www.iaaf.org/worldrankings/index.html

[Stensol]

From http://www.iaaf.org/worldrankings/how.html :

In Individual Track & Field Events the Ranking Score is the average of the 6 best Performance Scores obtained by the athlete in a particular Event in the 1-year period prior to the date of ranking.

Take a look at the link above. To say that the rankings process is detailed is an understatement. Going back one year won't paint a balanced picture about what's been happening in the 2005 indoor and early outdoor seasons. It would be a better reflection of what was happening in any given year if they only went back to January 1st of that year. My guess is that the IAAF doesn't want to be overly biased toward the Northern Hemisphere, so they set the date to a year.

How much attention is paid to these rankings? Do athletes win awards or other prizes for this? Do the athletes themselves place any prestige on these rankings? If not, then what's the point?

[VaultNinja]

From http://www.iaaf.org/worldrankings/how.html :

In Individual Track & Field Events the Ranking Score is the average of the 6 best Performance Scores obtained by the athlete in a particular Event in the 1-year period prior to the date of ranking.

Take a look at the link above. To say that the rankings process is detailed is an understatement. Going back one year won't paint a balanced picture about what's been happening in the 2005 indoor and early outdoor seasons. It would be a better reflection of what was happening in any given year if they only went back to January 1st of that year. My guess is that the IAAF doesn't want to be overly biased toward the Northern Hemisphere, so they set the date to a year.

How much attention is paid to these rankings? Do athletes win awards or other prizes for this? Do the athletes themselves place any prestige on these rankings? If not, then what's the point?

The rankings mean alot to agents, sponsors and meet directors. Trust me.