John Wesley Harding wrote:
Valencia hasn’t changed my men’s top-10. An eye-opening performance from the winner, sure, but 2:03:51 only makes him #9 this season and the conditions were near perfect, so we’ll see how he fares going forward. Kaan Kigen Ozbilen has had a great year as well, with a runner-up finish in Rotterdam (2:05:27) before his 2:04:16 in Valencia.
As for the women, as fast and competitive as the Valencia race was I can’t squeeze the top-4 from that race into the top-10. Although Cheruiyot came 4th, I don’t think it’s fair to drop her from 5th off the list altogether given her 2nd place in London and her established status. She loses a couple spots, Dereje moves up several and Abreha & Dibaba miss the cut but would be locks for top-20.
1. Brigid Kosgei
2. Ruth Chepng’etich
3. Joyciline Jepkosgei
4. Ashete Bekere
5. Roza Dereje
6. Worknesh Degefa
7. Vivian Cheruiyot
8. Mary Keitany
9. Valary Jemeli
10. Ruti Aga
Abu Dhabi this Friday may be the last race of the year to affect either ranking, as I’ll be watching Marius Kipserem.