Athlete form through the year has been assessed by an international panel of experts to create rankings based on merit

For the 19th year, Athletics International has collaborated with Athletics Weekly to produce an annual statistical review including world top-10 merit rankings.

The selection panel – consisting of Athletics International co-editors Peter Matthews and Mel Watman, with Stan Greenberg and Stuart Mazdon (UK), Mirko Jalava (FIN), Alfons Juck (SVK), A Lennart Julin (SWE) and Ed Gordon (USA) – assessed the year’s records of the leading contenders and the ranking order was determined by consensus.

This year the World Championships provided the main focus for competition followed by the Diamond League and World Challenge meetings. As ever the panel was concerned with the quality of athletes’ best marks, their consistency, and win-loss records against other ranked competitors.

Below we list the top three in each women's event. The men's international rankings can be found here, while UK merit rankings for men are here and the women's are here. The full top-10 list for every event, including details of the athletes' seasons, appear in our December 21 end-of-year stats special, which is available to buy and read digitally here or order here.

100m
1 Elaine Thompson (JAM)
2 Tori Bowie (USA)
3 Marie-Josée Ta Lou (CIV)

200m
1 Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH)
2 Elaine Thompson (JAM)
3 Dafne Schippers (NED)

400m
1 Shaunae Miller-Uibo (BAH)
2 Slawa Eid Naser (BRN)
3 Phyllis Francis (USA)

800m
1 Caster Semenya (RSA)
2 Francine Niyonsaba (BDI)
3 Ajee’ Wilson (USA)

1500m/one mile
1 Faith Kipyegon (KEN)
2 Sifan Hassan (NED)
3 Laura Muir (GBR)

5000m
1 Hellen Obiri (KEN)
2 Almaz Ayana (ETH)
3 Sifan Hassan (NED)

10,000m
1 Almaz Ayana (ETH)
2 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH)
3 Agnes Tirop (KEN)

Marathon
1 Mary Keitany (KEN)
2 Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH)
3 Rose Chelimo (KEN)

3000m steeplechase
1 Beatrice Chepkoech (KEN)
2 Hyvin Jepkemoi (KEN)
3 Ruth Jebet (BRN)

100m hurdles
1 Kendra Harrison (USA)
2 Sally Pearson (AUS)
3 Sharika Nelvis (USA)

400m hurdles
1 Kori Carter (USA)
2 Dalilah Muhammad (USA)
3 Zuzana Hejnova (CZE)

High jump
1 Maria Lasitskene (RUS)
2 Kamila Licwinko (POL)
3 Yuliya Levchenko (UKR)

Pole vault
1 Ekaterini Stefanidi (GRE)
2 Sandi Morris (USA)
3 Yarisley Silva (CUB)

Long jump
1 Brittney Reese (USA)
2 Tianna Bartoletta (USA)
3 Ivana Spanovic (SRB)

Triple jump
1 Yulimar Rojas (VEN)
2 Caterine Ibargüen (COL)
3 Olga Rypakova (KAZ)

Shot
1 Gong Lijiao (CHN)
2 Anita Marton (HUN)
3 Michelle Carter (USA)

Discus
1 Sandra Perkovic (CRO)
2 Dani Samuels (AUS)
3 Yaimi Perez (CUB)

Hammer
1 Anita Wlodarczyk (POL)
2 Wang Zheng (CHN)
3 Malwina Kopron (POL)

Javelin
1 Barbora Spotakova (CZE)
2 Sara Kolak (CRO)
3 Tatyana Kholodovich (BLR)

Heptathlon
1 Nafissatou Thiam (BEL)
2 Carolin Schäfer (GER)
3 Anouk Vetter (NED)

20km walk
1 Yang Jiayu (CHN)
2 María Guadeloupe González (MEX)
3 Antonella Palmisano (ITA)

50km walk
1 Inês Henriques (POR)
2 Yin Hang (CHN)
3 Yang Shuqing (CHN)

» For the full top-10 list for every event, including details of athletes' seasons, see the December 21 stats special edition of Athletics Weekly, which is available to buy and read digitally here or order here

» Peter Matthews and Mel Watman are joint editors of Athletics International. For more information on receiving the Athletics International newsletter email [email protected]