Russia, China, Great Britain resurgent, tight race for second place

The mighty USA, monthly winners with nearly double the point share of second-placed China (10.6% vs 5.9%) are still firmly on top of the Global Cup ranking.

But the race for second place and the top ten positions in general is warming up to a thrilling finale in the last four months of the year.

 

Besides China, Russia and Great Britain too had a great month. The former have edged past resilient France by a mere 3 points to take overall second place, while Great Britain continue to rise up the ranks, from 17^th overall at the end of June to 7^th at the end of August.

They did well in both of the month’s major tournaments (3^rd in the Swimming Worlds and 4^th in the Athletics Worlds, their best finish of the tournament’s last four editions) and, with a 6-positions improvement versus August 2014 (see table below), they are among the most improved nations in the current top 20 compared to last year, the leaders in this respect being Kenya and Poland.

 

Place	Country	vs Aug 2014
1	United States	0
2	Russia	1
3	France	4
4	China	2
5	Germany	-3
6	Australia	2
7	Great Britain	6
8	Canada	-4
9	Japan	6
10	Italy	4
11	South Korea	5
12	Kenya	20
13	Norway	-1
14	Jamaica	n.a.
15	Netherlands	-10
16	Poland	12
17	Sweden	-8
18	Switzerland	-1
19	Austria	-1
20	Brazil	-10