Great Britain flies to third overall in August, the USA lead the Global Cup
Great Britain reached its highest-ever Global Cup position in August 2012: third overall in the Global Cup ranking behind the USA and Russia, and ahead of the other sport superpower, China.
A great result, encompassing a brilliant Olympics performance which saw British athletes reach fourth overall position behind the 3 superpowers, and to which Rory McIlroy’s triumph in Golf’s PGA Championship (at the Kiawah Island Ocean Course, South Carolina, USA) added the final polish.
Golf is indeed the third best sport in GBR’s bag, behind Athletics, which earned 11,5% of all GBR points, and Football, whose three quarter-final spots in the UEFA European Championship (Men) and the Olympic Tournament (both Men and Women) earned Great Britain 325 points (10,9% of their total).
After Golf we find Hockey, Track Cycling, Swimming, Rugby Union, Sailing, Boxing and Tennis, in ranking order, making up GBR’s top ten sports in 2012. Also remarkable is the fact that Great Britain has scored points in 35 sports so far this year, only three less than the number of sports with points in the whole of 2011.
The USA in the meantime proceed at full speed, and, after winning the Olympics overall, have opened up a huge 2837 points gap over second-place Russia. The sporting calendar between September and December will be very busy but it’s hard to imagine the Russians, or anyone else indeed, close down this gap.
In the Per Capita Cup, Jamaica is still leading: it takes only 4600 Jamaicans to score one GSN point (vs 45733 Americans for example) but with Athletics accounting for 98,3% of the Caribbeans’ points (the remainder from Swimming) they may have precious few opportunities to score in the coming months. It’s an open chase for gritty New Zealand, currently a very close second (at 4887 chaps per point) and with a wider pool of sports – 19 sports with points at the moment for them – to earn results from.
