WORLD MEN'S AOY
Alekna Ends Field-Event Drought

Field eventers in general--and throwers in particular--usually confined to a single event, have trouble getting proper respect in AOY voting.

But Lithuania's Virgilijus Alekna changed all that, becoming the first thrower since hammer ace Yuriy Syedikh in '86 to earn the top position. And our voters made him a clear choice.

Marks are supposed to be the least-important category when it comes to the Rankings, but Alekna's were so imposing that they became a major factor. Not only did he produce the No. 2 throw ever, he also new standards for big series, becoming the first ever to have three throws over 70m (229-8) in one meet, and then topped that with a meet with four such throws.

The 220-foot barrier was nothing to Alekna, who topped it in 14 consecutive meets to close the season. Only one other thrower had as many as 3 in a row all year. Alekna also had a 14-meet win streak, the year's longest in any event.

Alekna received 20 of 36 1st-place votes from our international panel:

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	%
1. Virgilijus Alekna	20	6	3	2	2	2	--	1	--	--	317	88.1%
2. Michael Johnson	3	12	13	3	1	2	2	--	--	--	287	79.7%
3. Maurice Greene	2	6	6	6	3	8	--	--	3	--	228	63.3%
4. Robert Korzeniowski	5	3	7	4	2	2	1	1	1	4	196	54.4%
5. Jan Zelezny	3	5	3	5	4	--	2	3	1	3	180	50.0%
6. Haile Gebrselassie	3	3	1	5	5	4	1	4	2	1	171	47.5%
7. Jonathan Edwards	--	--	1	3	3	4	7	6	5	4	127	35.3%
8. Iván Pedroso	--	--	--	2	4	5	5	6	5	4	115	31.9%
9. Hicham El Guerrouj	--	--	1	3	6	5	2	2	3	2	112	31.1%
10. Anier García	--	1	--	1	3	1	5	5	2	4	82	22.8%
11. Angelo Taylor 74; 12. Noah Ngeny 62; 13. Tomás Dvorák 26; 14. Ato Boldon 2; 15. Adam Nelson 1.