Russia: Global Cup 2011 facts

Russia and the USA are the two greatest nations in sport. The Americans have won the Global Cup, GSN’s overall international ranking, for four years in succession from 2008 to 2011. But Russia has always been there right behind them, in second place from 2008 to 2011.

What are the key factors of Russian sporting prowess?

Excellence pure and simple: in 2011 they won more sports than anyone else, 3 more than the USA.

Breadth of talent: Russia scored points in 47 sports, 10 more than their closest pursuer China, third-placed in the overall Global Cup.

Sporting culture: in the Per Capita Cup, which tells how sporting a country is (how many inhabitants a country needs to score one GSN point), Russia is 32^nd overall but well ahead of both the USA and China. It takes only 22537 Russian citizens to score one GSN point, vs 37114 Americans and 302112 Chinese!

 

For more details, here are the main facts about Russia in the 2011 Global Cup.

 

1. Russia finished 2nd behind the USA, trailing by 1927 points. They were second in 2010 too, by 1337 points. In percentage, the gap was 2% pts in 2010 and 2,2% pts in 2011.

2. Russia was 2^nd in both the Men and Women Global Cups, trailing the USA only by 0,8% of points in Men and as many as 4,2 % pts in the Ladies.

3. Russia won outright the Global Cup in 9 sports, 2 more than China (3^rd placed overall) and 3 more than the USA: the sports are:

4. The best sports for Russia, in % of their total points were:

a.       Athletics (24,3%)

b.      Canoe-Kayak Sprint (8,9%)

c.       Volleyball (8,1%)

In comparison , Athletics was top sport for the USA (25,9%) but only the second sport for China (9,4%).

5. At the Daegu Athletics World Championships Russia finished second behind the USA with 1531 pts, trailing by only 551 pts or 4,3% pts. They were 3^rd in the Men (553 pts)  and 2^nd by a painted fingernail in the Ladies (136 pts). They were 3^rd in Women Track Athletics, behind the USA and Kenya, and they won Women Field Athletics, ahead of Germany and China.

6.  The vanguard of Russian sports in 2011 has been Women Field Athletics at the Daegu Athletics Worlds. Russian gold medals in this discipline were:

a.       20 km walk, and bronze too

b.      Hammer (though out of first 8 in discus)

c.       Heptathlon

d.      High Jump, and also 4^th and 5^th

e.      Javelin

Plus placements in the first 8 in Pole Vault (6^th), Shot Put (5^th), Long Jump (7^th) and Triple Jump (7^th).

7. Besides the Field Ladies, we have the Men of Canoe-Kayak Sprint, ahead of Germany and Belarus and decisive for the overall win in the 2011 Canoe-Kayak Sprint World Championships.

8.  And the Ladies who swept the field at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Worlds: they won 7 of 9 events, with a sensational gold-silver double in 5 of them. The undisputed queen: Yevgeniya Kanayeva, with 5 individual golds out of 5 events and two more golds in team events.

9. What about  the Synchronised Swimming team who won all the golds at the 2011 Worlds? Gold with Ishchenko in the solo tech and solo free events; gold by Ishchenko-Romashina in duet tech and free events; golds in team tech, free and combination events!!!

 

10.Other great moments for Russia in 2011:

a.       Victory in the Bandy Worlds in Kazan (Russia) defeating Finland 6-1 in the final

b.      Victory in the IFSC Sport Climbing Worlds in Arco (Italy), where Russian climbers were 1^st and 3^rd in bouldering, 2^nd in speed and 1^st and 3^rd in the team speed event

c.       Victory in the Figure Skating worlds in Moscow (Russia) with 3^rd in Men (A. Gachinsky), silver in the Pairs (T. Voloshozhar and Maxim Trankov)

d.      Victory in the Open Water Swimming Worlds, with Men: Bolshakov 3^rd in 10km, Drattsev 3^rd in 5km; Dyatchin 2^nd in 25k; and first eight placements in women 25km (6^th), men 25km (7^th), men 5km (6^th), women 5km (5^th).

e.      Wrestling: gold medals in both MenFreestyle and Greco-roman disciplines.

 

And on for 2012!