Anju regains No. 4 ranking

Despite a lowly sixth place finish at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Anju Bobby George climbed a notch up to number four in the latest long jump world rankings of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

The Kerala athlete had dropped to five at the start of the month after failing to make it to the finals at the World Indoor Championship in Moscow under controversial circumstances.

Anju has had a less than spectacular beginning to 2006, struggling to achieve the marks she recorded while winning the Asian Championship at Incheon, South Korea, and the silver medal at the World Athletics Finals in Monaco.

She opened her season with a second place in the Asian Indoor Championship, with a best leap of 6.32m, and followed it up with a jump of 4.47m at the Federation Cup in New Delhi, before leaving for Moscow, where her she registered a best of 6.34m.

In Melbourne too, she could clear only 6.54m and finished way behind gold medallist and local favourite Bronwyn Thompson.

However, the ace athlete is confident of a reversal in fortunes as she feels her rhythm is getting better with each meet she figures in.

"My rhythm is improving all the time and I am confident of landing some medals before long," she said on return from Melbourne on Tuesday night.

"March is too early in the season to be in peak rhythm and generally I do my best later in the year," she added.

In the latest rankings, Anju upstaged Russian Oksana Udmurtova to gain one spot.

Tatyana Kotova continues to head the charts, ahead of American duo Tianna Madison and Grace Upshaw.

Thompson's gold medal-winning performance has given her a huge lift in the rankings as she climbed eight spots, to number seven.

Manchester Commonwealth Games champion Elva Goulbourne of Jamaica, who finished ninth this time, dropped out of the top 10 and is now at 11.