Paula Radcliffe wins Nike 10km (© GettyImages)
MONACOFor the first time ever, the IAAF will recognise official world bests for all the most popular road running distances.
Starting on 1 January 2003, IAAF world bests will be recognised, as long as a number of criteria are respected. These were approved by IAAF Council at its meeting in Paris in July 2002.
For a World Best to be accepted, a total of 8 criteria need to be met from 1 January 2003. Among them are the following technical requirements:
The course must be measured by an “A” or “B” IAAF/AIMS approved measurer as defined in IAAF Rule 240.3;
The start and finish points on a course, measured along a straight line between them, shall not be further apart than 50% of the race distance;
The decrease in elevation between the start and finish shall not exceed one in a thousand, i.e. 1 metre per kilometer.
No new world bests will be ratified from 1 January unless the athlete has had a doping control on the date of the race.
ROAD RACES WORLD BEST PERFORMANCES
List of performances respecting all criteria
Situation as at 24 December 2003
MEN
Event Perf Athlete Country Date Venue
10km 27:02 Haile GEBRSELASSIE ETH 11.12.02 Doha, QAT
15 Km 41:29 Felix LIMO KEN 11.11.01 Nijmegen, NED
20 Km 56:18 Paul TERGAT KEN 04.04.98 Milan, ITA
Half Marathon 59:17 Paul TERGAT KEN 04.04.98 Milan, ITA
25 Km 1:13:14 Rodgers ROP KEN 06.05.01 Berlin, GER
30 Km to be established
Marathon 2:05:38 Khalid KHANNOUCHI USA 14.04.02 London, GBR
100 Km 6:13:33 Takahiro SUNADA JPN 21.06.98 Lake Saroma, JPN
Ekiden 1:57:56 (*) MAR 17.04.94 Litochoro, GRE
(R Race relay)
WOMEN
Event Perf Athlete Country Date Venue
10 Km 30:29 Asmae LEGHZAOUI MAR 08.06.02 New York, USA
15 Km 46:57 Elana MEYER RSA 02.11.91 Capetown, RSA
20 Km 1:03:26 Paula RADCLIFFE GBR 06.10.01 Bristol, GBR
Half Marathon 1:06:44 Elena MEYER RSA 15.01.99 Tokyo, JPN
25 Km 1:22:31 Naoko TAKAHASHI JPN 30.09.01 Berlin, GER
30 Km 1:39:02 Naoko TAKAHASHI JPN 30.09.02 Berlin, GER
Marathon 2:17.18 Paula RADCLIFFE GBR 13.10.02 Chicago, USA
100 Km 6:33:11 Tomoe ABE JPN 25.05.00 Lake Saroma, JPN
Ekiden 2:11:41 (*) CHN 28.02.98 Beijing, CHN
(R Race relay)
(*) For the Ekiden Road Race Relay WBP, the teams were composed of:
Men MAR
Brahim Jabbour, Elarbi Khattabi, Hicham El Guerrouj, Salah Hissou, Brahim Boutayeb, Khalid Skah
Women CHN
Jiang Bo, Dong Yanmei, Zhao Fenting, Ha Zaigji, Lan Lixin, Lin Xa
For Half Marathon & Marathon, World Best performances for “point to point” races will be separately recognized if they are superior to those listed above.
