Global Cup 2016: USA lead, France edge in second place
The 2016 sporting year’s spotlights are all on the Rio Olympic Games, but the month of July has provided a very exciting run-up to the main event, awarding as many as 4602 GSN points, over 26% of the year’s tally so far.
July is traditionally an event-rich period, plus it featured major international tournaments in two of the world’s main point-earning sports: the Euro 2016 men’s Football championship in France and the Volleyball Grand Prix (for women) and World League (for men).
European nations had a whopper month, France top among them, with their 3rd place in the Volleyball World League and runners-up medal in the Euro 2016, behind Portugal. France now sits in second place in the Global Cup, the ranking of the world’s best sporting nations, as high as it’s ever been. They are followed by a closely knit pack consisting of Canada, Great Britain, Russia and Germany, all of them within a mere 185 points of the French, while underperforming China – who, it must said, are still trailing behind all of the above nations in the main Ball Team sports – are in 7th place. Great Britain, through Wales’ exciting run to the semi-finals which earned them 185 points, and losing semi-finalists Germany, also greatly benefited from Euro 2016 results.
Meanwhile the USA are still comfortably ahead of everyone else, and have enjoyed another sensational month. They picked up 305 points from the big Volleyball tournaments and a huge 283 points from Golf, with victories in the men’s PGA Championship and the women’s US Open.
The Stars and Stripes leviathan already have a 747 points lead in the Global Cup, and this before the Olympic Games!
Talking of which, Rio hosts Brazil are well worth a mention. They finished second in the July monthly ranking behind the USA, thanks to a huge 490 points earned by topping the women’s Volleyball Grand Prix and winning silver, after Serbia, in the men’s Volleyball World League.
The Olympics are nearly over now, so watch out for August’s monthly GSN results incorporating the Rio games, which could shape the year crucially, especially in the fight for second place in the Global Cup.
