France wins record sporting month of September
September has been far and away the busiest sporting month this year, with a record 12,042 points awarded in the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations. The points were shared between 76 different countries, from (in alphabetical order) Albania to Uzbekistan.
France narrowly won the month ahead of the USA, Russia and Germany, scoring points in 14 different sports. The highlights were 3 golds at the World Sailing Championships, victory by Pauline Ferrand-Prevot in the Women’s Road Cycling Worlds elite race and two golds at the Mountain Bike Worlds.
In the yearly Global Cup ranking, the USA still lead with a comfortable margin (745 points), which is however only roughly half the 1448 points advantage they recorded at the end of 2013 over second placed Russia. Sporting competition has been fierce at all levels this year.
Germany is still tenaciously hanging on to 2nd place in the yearly ranking, their best ever placement in the Global Cup, with Russia, now 3rd and only 99 pts behind, slowly eroding Germany’s margin.
France brilliant monthly performance puts them now in 4th place in the yearly table, up 4 places from August, overtaking China, Canada and the Netherlands. The latter are in 7th place, still their best ever slot in the ranking, one ahead of Great Britain, who have also gained one place this month. Brazil, runners-up in the Men’s Volleyball World Championships, have leapfrogged a couple of places into 9th overall, but the record hop has been made by Poland, who climb 10 places from 28th overall in August to 18th, on the back of their first-ever victory in the Men’s Volleyball World Championships, two golds at the Shooting World Championships and Michal Kwiatkowski’s win (another first for the East European nation) in the Men’s Road Cycling World Championships elite race.
Three more months to go before another sporting year ends, and they promise to be very exciting, so follow them on Greatest Sporting Nation!
