Athletics Global Cup 2009 results
As the IAAF World Athletics Championships followed on from the Beijing Olympics, the first five nations in the ranking remained the same as in 2008.
Behind the USA however, some shuffling has occured: Jamaica has flown into second place, ousting Kenya, with Russia slipping into fourth place ahead of Ethiopia. Despite Jamaica's record performance, the USA still kept a 700 weighted points gap open, while the biggest leap was Ethiopia’s, who nearly doubled the points scored in 2008.
Elsewhere in the ranking, we note that China has improved over the 2008 Olympics year and climbed into 9th place, that tiny Trinidad & Tobago finished 12th, ahead of countries with strong Athletics traditions like Cuba, Spain and Morocco, that Bahrain and the Bahamas confirmed their top 20 positions as in the Beijing year, and that Poland (+ 4 places) and Germany (+ 8 places !) were the biggest leapers in the top 10.
