Russia, Turkey, steal the show in September
September has been one of the hottest months on the 2010 sporting calendar: leading off with the Basketball World Championships (Men) in Turkey, and following with several other major tournaments such as the Weightlifting World Championships, the Free and Greco-Roman Wrestling Worlds, the Canoe-Kayak Slalom World Championships, the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, the Berlin Marathon and a few more world class events.
The United States have scored over 500 points in September, stretching their Global Cup leadership over Germany and Russia. But the Russians have had a brilliant month, topping the monthly ranking with a whopping 846 points and cutting the Germans’ advantage to only 79 points!
Though only 7th in the Basketball World Championships, Russia came second (to China) in the Weightlifting Worlds and swept the board in Wrestling (both Free and Graeco-Roman) and Rythmic Gymnastics.
The other country to strike gold in September was Turkey: only 40th in the 2009 Global Cup with 447 points to their credit in the whole year, the Turks earned 505 points in September alone, coming third in the monthly ranking, ahead of China!
Turkey’s points came from their excellent silver medal in the Basketball Worlds (on home ground) but also from 3rd place overall in the Weightlifting Worlds and 2nd place in the Graeco-Roman Wrestling Worlds.
Elsewhere in the Global Cup overall ranking:
- Ethiopia is the first African nation, in 25th place, after a brilliant overall result in the Berlin Marathon
- Brazil, in 17th place, is the first South American nation (but they’ll certainly improve in October after the Volleyball Worlds)
- Norway still leads the Per Capita Cup
- Samoa, in 48th place, needs only 943 people to score a GSN point (per capita leaders Norway need 3.872) but has scored points in too few events – well, they won the Men World Rugby Sevens ! – to be officially placed in the Per Capita Cup.
