France pip Russia in Global Cup after Women Handball triumph
France have won the Handball Women’s World Championships, defeating Norway in the final and crucially overtaking Russia in second place in the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations.
With only a handful of tournaments left in the year, today’s Handball victory (worth 240 points) and the 11 points won in the Squash Women’s World Open, which also finished today, mean that France have a 126-point lead over Russia, which at the start of December still retained a 61-point margin over France.
Except for a major surprise, it looks as though France will manage to repeat last year’s feat of finishing second behind the USA in the Global Cup – or first of the rest.
Great Britain in fourth also seem pretty secure of their final position, while something could in theory still change in the race for fifth place between Italy, China and Germany.
Norway’s second place in the Handball Women’s World Championships was worth a very handy 192 points, so that they climbed in provisional 11th place in the Global Cup and, more importantly, have virtually sealed victory in the Per Capita Cup, the ranking of the world’s sportiest nations.
The Global Cup’s top 12 positions as of 17th December are set out below. Please note that, at the time of publication, none of the December tournament results were yet reflected on the GSN tables.
| GLOBAL CUP as of 17/12/17 | |||
| 1 | United States | 6,359 | 10.4% |
| 2 | France | 3,292 | 5.4% |
| 3 | Russia | 3,166 | 5.2% |
| 4 | Great Britain | 2,743 | 4.5% |
| 5 | Italy | 2,498 | 4.1% |
| 6 | China | 2,443 | 4.0% |
| 7 | Germany | 2,375 | 3.9% |
| 8 | Japan | 2,223 | 3.6% |
| 9 | Canada | 2,205 | 3.6% |
| 10 | Australia | 1,710 | 2.8% |
| 11 | Norway | 1,681 | 2.7% |
| 12 | South Korea | 1,675 | 2.7% |
