China climbs to third in Global Cup as USA surges ahead
In October, the USA topped yet again the monthly table in the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, by winning the Athletics World Championships and finishing second behind Russia in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, the month’s two main sporting tournaments.
Following in the wake of its victory in the record-breaking month of September, the USA has further stretched its lead over Russia at the top of the Global Cup at the end of October, while behind them China climbed into third place, leapfrogging France.
The USA’s victory in the Athletics World Championships was resoundingly comprehensive: the US Track and Field athletes earned themselves a 19.3% share of the GSN points awarded, while the shares of Jamaica and Kenya, respectively in second and third place, were 7.7% and 6.4%. The USA went on to win both the men’s and women’s ranking at the championships, ahead of Kenya and China respectively, as well as both the Field and Track rankings (ahead of Germany in the former and Kenya in the latter).
The race was much tighter in the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, in which Russia edged the USA by a mere 6 points, winning the men’s ranking ahead of China and Great Britain, and finishing a creditable third in the women’s one. The latter was dominated by the USA, with Simone Biles winning five golds and becoming the most decorated gymnast in world championship history.
Behind the two superpowers, China and Germany are steaming ahead in the race for third place. There are now only 390 points between China in third place and Great Britain in sixth, and the latter is set to considerably boost its points tally in November after the Rugby Union World Cup, so we are looking at a very exciting finale for the last two months of the sporting year.
