November Global Cup: the Dragon's on the up

While the top three positions remain unchanged (the USA, Russia and Germany), November saw a strong effort by China, climbing threateningly up a place into fourth.

The Dragon athletes swept the field at the Weightlifting World Championships (3 golds in the women, 5 golds in the men) and the Trampoline World Championships, where they clinched gold in team men and women, individual men and women, and synchronised women!

Elsewhere in the top 20, the only other change was Sweden sliding into nineteenth place ahead of Jamaica, thanks to a semi-final berth in the mens Tennis ATP Masters finals.

With only one short month of competitions left, it looks as though the top 3 places in the Global Cup 2009 are settled: the USA are over 500 points ahead of Russia, who in turn have a comfortable 1.605 points lead over Germany, who are 509 points clear of China. For all the other countries, it's time to look ahead to the challenge in 2010.