November 2011: stronger winds from the East

The month of November 2011 wasn’t one of the busiest of the year (3.480 GSN points at stake)

but has had its good share of major championships and a long list of 57 countries scoring points. China and Russia, ie last month in reverse, have topped the monthly chart, cornering 24% of the points altogether.

Both countries has closed the gap vs the USA in the overall Global Cup, where Russia ranks second with a margin of 1.792 points to close in December (frankly it’s quite impossible) and China lies third, trailing Russia by 1.860 points.

The two Eastern countries have done very well in the Weightlifting World Championships (China top, Russia second) where some of the other surprise countries this month did very well: Kazakhstan lifted for third place, Iran was fourth and the Ukraine fifth.

The overall monthly ranking behind the two leaders saw Ethiopia third, on the strength of their astonishing marathon runners (at the NY Marathon: first and second in the Ladies, 3^rd and 4^th in the Men), Kenya fourth, taking 1^st, 2^nd and 8^th in the Men’s NY Marathon. For the latter country this is just the tail end of a spectacular year: Kenya is 8^th overall in the yearly Global Cup, ahead of some “big” countries such as Australia, Italy, Canada, South Korea…

To go back to the monthly result:  Kazakhstan was fifth behind Kenya, then the Ukraine, Iran, France, Great Britain, who did well in the Trampoline World Championships, even better (1^st in the Men, 2^nd in the Ladies) at the Squash World Open and was 5^th in the Korfball World Championships. Spain took 10^th spot, scoring points in Weightlifting, Trampoline, Tennis and Korfball.

For the record, the quadrennial Korfball World Championships took place in November in Shaoxing, China: the title went to the Netherlands, world champions for a record 8 times (see pic above: yes, that's korfball!), ahead of Belgium and Taiwan, who beat Catalonia (yes, that’s one country for us to research!) for the bronze medal.