2013 International Merit Ratings (Men) by Stuart Mazdon of N.U.T.S
A lot of times have to be taken with a pinch of salt as they largely depend on the strictness of the officials present at the meeting. So times are weighted very weakly in this event, and win-loss records much more highly, along with merit wins.
20km Walk
1. Denis Strelkov (RUS). 2-1 v Ivanov and he had the much faster time (in a race with Ivanov). The European Cup was almost as big a meeting as the Worlds, with 8 of this top-10 there and Strelkov won. He was only 5th at the Worlds.
2. Aleksandr Ivanov (RUS). Won the Worlds but was only 1-1 v Lopez, 1-2 v Strelkov and slower than Strelkov.
3. Miguel Angel Lopez (ESP). 2nd and 3rd in the two biggest meetings of the year and was 1-1 with the two ranked above him.
4. Chen Ding (CHN). No fast times, but 2nd at the Worlds.
5. Matej Tóth (SVK). Beat Dmytrenko at the Euro Cup, and also won Sesto SG, beating Suzuki and Vieira. Similar times to Dmytrenko, but he was 2-0 v Vieira whereas Dmytrenko was only 1-1 with him.
6. Ruslan Dmytrenko (UKR). 7th at the Worlds, but he beat Saito well in Lugano and Vieira in Dudince. Also beat Strelkov at the WUG so he has more merit overall than Vieira and faster times than him.
7. Joao Vieira (POR). Beat Ruzavin 2-0 (at the major meetings) and although he doesn't have the fast times of Ruzavin, his merit makes up for that.
A big gap after Vieira. Places thereafter are entirely dependent upon how much weight is given to times.
8. Yusuke Suzuki (JPN). Beat Vieira in Sesto SG, so was 1-1 with him overall. However, Suzuki has 2 of the 5 best times of the year, which can't really be ignored - one of them was in winning the Asian Champs and the other in beating his compatriot who was 6th at the Worlds. His 12th at the Worlds drags him down a little.
9. Andrey Ruzavin (RUS). He perhaps has the next best merit placings, by beating Strelkov and Ivanov. Beat Trofimov 2-1 and was faster than him on average. Obviously had a couple of disasters, but his positive walks are good enough to be ahead of Trofimov and the Chinese. His win-loss records are generally bad, but his times were very good. Linke, Augustyn and Kovenko beat Ruzavin 2-0, but they don't have the merit to back that up.
10. Pyotr Trofimov (RUS). Had the year's fastest time, but he was quite slow elsewhere. That fast winter champs win was ahead of Strelkov, Ivanov and Ruzavin, so he gains enough merit to be ahead of the Chinese.
11. Takumi Saito (JPN). 6th at the Worlds gives him a lot of merit, but his performances elsewhere add almost no merit. Times not as good as Suzuki, Ruzavin or Trofimov.
12. Erik Tysse (NOR). 6th at the European Cup means he beat Vieira, Ruzavin and Trofimov, and with 2nd at Podebrady he beat Toth. Only those two races, so not enough to be higher.
13. Cai Zelin (CHN). Only 26th at the Worlds, but he beat Chen and Tallent at Taicang in the world's 2nd fastest time.
14. Jared Tallent (AUS). Beat Bird-Smith 2-0 and his win in La Coruna was ahead of Vieira and Saito. Also had the fast time in Taicang.
15. Dane Alex Bird-Smith (AUS). Behind Linke at the Worlds, but Linke only has EP 10th to back that up, whereas Bird-Smith has faster times and a win over Vieira and Suzuki at Sesto SG.
16. Christoper Linke (GER). 9th at the Worlds, and his 10th at the European Cup adds to that with wins over Ruzavin and Trofimov.
17. Wang Zhen (CHN). Disqualified at the Worlds, so he loses out on a lot of merit. Great times winning elsewhere, but only minor victories only beating Dmytrenko, Saito and Cai from the top 20 and they all beat him at the Worlds.
18. Pyotr Bogatyrev (RUS). Beat Ivanov at the Euro-U23s and Trofimov at his NC.
19. Li Jianbo (CHN). Won the big Taicang meeting (including Chinese NC) in a very fast time, but he was only 14th in his other race.
20. Andrey Krivov (RUS). Won the WUG over big names - Strelkov, Dmytrenko, Ruzavin and Inaki Gomez.
50km Walk
1. Robert Heffernan (IRL). His only race was winning the Worlds in the world's fastest time.
2. Mikhail Ryzhov (RUS). 2nd in both the big meetings. Close to ranking no.1, but he would have needed to win the European Cup in a better time.
3. Jared Tallent (AUS). Only has 3rd at the Worlds, but like Heffernan v Ryzhov, Hlavan didn't quite do well enough in the EP to outrank him.
4. Ihor Hlavan (UKR). 1-1 with Diniz and they both beat Noskov once and Sudol twice. Diniz also beat Ryzhov but Hlavan just has a few extra wins that make the difference, and had the faster time.
5. Yohann Diniz (FRA). Only 10th at the Worlds, but he won the European Cup, beating the world nos. 2 and 4, and in a time faster than Noskov at the Worlds.
6. Ivan Noskov (RUS). Very close with Toth, with Noskov ahead on merit and in having 2 times rather than just one.
7. Matej Tóth (SVK). Very close to Diniz and Noskov, mainly due to Toth having better win-loss records, through only competing once. However, Diniz beat Ryzhov and Hlavan (which Toth did not manage) and Noskov beat
Hlavan.
8. Grzegorz Sudol (POL). Well behind Toth, as his 5th at the EP didn't involve beating any of the top 12, and that and his dnf in Dudince made his win-loss records worse.
9. Erick Barrondo (GUA). Beat Diniz and Sudol in Dudince, but Sudol had wins over Diniz and Noskov at the Worlds (plus Nowak, Tanii, etc.) which put him well ahead on merit.
10. Lukasz Nowak (POL). Well behind Barrondo on times, and Nowak only beat Diniz, not Sudol at the Worlds. Nowak obviously has wins over lower-placed athletes at the Worlds, but that’s not quite enough to make up for Barrondo’s much faster time. Nowak only had the one time too.
11. Takayuki Tanii (JPN). Two times under 3:45, but his Wajima race adds hardly any merit, and Nowak was sufficiently ahead at the Worlds.
12. Hiroki Arai (JPN). Ahead of Budza and Garcia because their EP performances add very little in terms of merit or times.
13. Serhiy Budza (UKR). Budza and Garcia are very even, being 1-1 in the two big meetings. The only thing to separate them is that Budza won by 3 mins and 2 places in the EP and Garcia won by 52 sec and 1 place in the WC.
14. Jesús Ángel García (ESP). He and Budza are ahead of Banzeruk, Maksimov and Sikora (who beat them at the EP), because Budza and Garcia beat more decent walkers ( 8 under 3:51) at the Worlds than those three did at the EP. Plus Garcia had the fastest time at the Worlds and Budza had two times under 3:50.
15. Ivan Banzeruk (UKR). He, Maksimov and Sikora beat Budza and Garcia at the EP. But Banzeruk was disqualified at the Worlds.
16. Yuriy Andronov (RUS). Difficult to guage the worth of his 3:43:54 in Cheboksary. There were many absentees from the Russian Champs, so he has virtually no merit from his win there. Banzeruk and Maksinov both beat Budza and Garcia at the European Cup, so their merit roughly makes up for their lack of times. However, as Andronov was Russian Champion it is convenient to rank him ahead of Maksimov.
17. Konstantin Maksimov (RUS). 7th at the EP.
18. Ivan Trotskiy (BLR). 14th at the Worlds, so not as much merit as Maksimov who was marginally faster and beat Budza and Garcia at the EP.
19. Rafal Sikora (POL). 8th at the EP, beating Budza and Garcia, but he dnf at Dudince and wasn’t as fast as Trotskiy who beat Banzeruk (dsq) at the Worlds.
20. Marco de Luca (ITA). 15th at Worlds.
Courtesy of
