Marion, Maurice head IAAF rankings

United States' superstar Marion Jones, who completed her Olympic quest with two individual gold medals in the sprints and a long jump bronze (as well as another gold and bronze in the relays) may have fallen a little short of her ambitious challenge for an unprecedented five golds, but her stellar performances logically projected her back in the lead of the IAAF world rankings.

In the course of her Sydney recital, Jones dominated the field in both the 100m and 200m, clocking seasonal bests over both distances (10.75 and 21.84), while finishing third in the long jump with 6m 92cm, accumulating enough points to recover the top spot from Norway's Trine Hattestad, whose continued domination in the javelin could not match Jones' versatility.

Versatility was again the key to improvements for Gabriela Szabo (who moves up one rank into third after taking gold at 5000m and bronze at 1500m with an amazing sprint in the last 20 metres) and Gete Wami, whose double toil over 5000m (bronze) and 10000m (silver) allows her to leap 14 spots and take fourth place.

Maria Mutola's long-sought gold at 800m keeps her in fifth place, just ahead of Australia's Cathy Freeman, who moves up one spot. Gail Devers, blocked by injury in the semifinals of the 100m hurdles, drops four places in the overall rankings from third to seventh, but maintains dominance in her event.

The highest leap into the Top 20 is achieved by Sonia O'Sullivan, another double entry in Sydney (silver at 5000m, 6th at 10000m), who moves up 37 places into 11th.

Another sprinter confirmed his domination in the men's overall rankings, where Maurice Greene maintains the top spot ahead of Hicham El Guerrouj, whose depth of performance this season allows him to remain the runner-up is spite of defeat at the 1500m in Sydney.

Michael Johnson and Noah Ngeny both move up one spot into third and fourth, while Virgilijus Alekna, who dominated the discus this year, advances a full five placings to become the top ranked thrower.

Ali Saidi Sief slips back three spots into sixth, paying not only for his defeat at 5000m but for a slow tactical race, while Ato Boldon breaks into the top ten leaping into seventh place with his silver (at 100m) and bronze (200m) medals.

The other newcomers in the elite are the new kings of the hurdles, Anier Garcia (110m hurdles) in 8th and Angelo Taylor (400m hurdles) in 10th.

Haile Gebrselassie and Ivan Pedroso, close winners of a breathtakingly close sprint in the home straight of the 10000m and a dramatic long jump contest respectively, are rewarded with the biggest progress among the top 20 (+20 and +19 respectively) which bring the Ethiopian "Boss" into 11th and the 'Soaring Cuban' into 19th.

Athletes qualified for the IAAF Grand Prix final will have the chance to further improve their rankings Thursday night in Doha, Qatar, in what will be for many the final act of 2000, while juniors will still have a chance to better their scores at the World Junior Championships to be held at the end of October in Santiago, Chile.

Biggest improvement in overall rankings among Olympic champions: Teenage hammer thrower Kamila Skolimowska (+384) and shot putter Arsi Harju (+283).

Greatest improvement in overall rankings: Lyudmila Gubkina (+606), 7th in hammer throw and Vasiliy Kaptyukh (+960) 4th in discus throw.

Biggest improvement in event rankings: Ji Li (+51), 7th at 10000m and Darren Campbell (+40), silver medallist at 200m.