Sports India

New Delhi, June 14. (PTI): Anju Bobby George continued her slide in the world rankings, as her lacklustre performances resulted in her dropping one place to number seven in the latest women’s long jump charts.

The lanky Keralite is struggling with poor form and injury since the start of the year and has not reached the levels, which saw her claiming a silver medal at the World Athletics Finals in Monaco in 2005.

Anju could manage only second place in the two Asian Grand Prix events in Bangalore and Pune after returning to the circuit after a heel injury which forced her out of the meet in Bangkok.

The ace Indian athlete, who was ranked as high as number four not too long back, would look to improve on her performance in time for the Athletics World Cup in Greece in September and the Doha Asian Games in December.

The latest rankings are dominated by Russian athletes with Tatyana Kotova, Oksana Udmurtova and Tatyana Lebedeva occupying the first three positions. American Tianna Madison drops one place to fourth ahead of Australia’s Bronwyn Thompson, who also loses one spot.

Grace Upshaw of the USA is a notch lower at six just ahead of Anju. Cuban Yargelis Savigne, Spain’s Concepcion Montaner and Russian Lyudmila Kolchanova round off the top 10.

In the men’s discus throw, Vikas Gowda, who won the gold medal at the NCAA (US Collegiate) championships in Sacramento, moved up two places to 23rd in the world rankings.