Brazil wins Volleyball Worlds, Italy makes biggest monthly leap

Murilo of Brazil spikes in the Volleyball Worlds final
The Brazil Men Volleyball team won the title at the World Volleyball Championships in October, and bagged the biggest Global Cup points gain of the month.
But the month of October was a very rewarding one: a total of 6.357 Global Cup weighted points were scored, the biggest single booty in the year, 1.404 of which at the Men Volleyball Worlds alone.
 
Italy scored 320 points altogether, thanks to fourth place in the Volleyball Worlds, victory in the Ladies Road Cycling World Championship event, and excellent results in the Shooting Worlds and the Artistic Gymnastics Worlds (men and women) . It was enough to rank 5th in the monthly Global Cup ranking, and to make the biggest leap up the table among the top ten countries overall, reaching 10th place.
 
Brazil was third overall in the monthly ranking, behind the United States and Russia, but could not improve their overall ranking by more than two positions, to 15th.
 
Thanks to medal placement in the Volleyball Worlds, two other countries made significant leaps in the overall Global Cup table: Serbia, which now sits in 20th place, up four places, and Cuba, runners-up in the Volleyball Worlds, up eight places to 27th.
 
Elsewhere in the top ten, there was very little movement. The USA increased their lead over Russia to 944 points, thanks to victories in the Women Basketball World Championships and in the Women Vault event at the Artistic Gymnastics Worlds, and to a cascade of points in sports as diverse as Marathon, Road Cycling and Equestrian.
 
The same old story, and with only two months to go, which country can stop the United States from clinching the Global Cup yet again?