Hungary best in September, Great Britain, Germany climb year-to-date table

While the podium places in the year-to-date table remain unchanged after September, with the USA, France and Japan all adding to their tallies to consolidate their positions – third-placed Japan now has a 682-point cushion over Great Britain – Hungary took top spot in the September monthly ranking (please see below) by winning the Canoe/Kayak Sprint World Championships. The tournament awarded 46.2% of all points up for grabs in the month, and Hungary won it over Belarus and Poland by a comfortable margin, with a 16.7% share of the points (Belarus came second with 11.0%). Hungary now sits in 16^th place overall in the Global Cup year-to-date table, the highest it has ever been.

 

Germany, second in the monthly table thanks to a rounded performance that saw it finish in the top-six in all three of the month’s main tournaments (the Road Cycling, Climbing and Canoe/Kayak Sprint World Championships), as well as score valuable points in Tennis and the Rugby Sevens World Series, climbed two places in the Global Cup year-to-date ranking, the best improvement among top-10 nations.

 

Likewise Great Britain, with victory in the women’s US Tennis Open and second place in the Rugby Sevens World Series, plus useful points in the month’s other tournaments, enjoyed a positive month and leapfrogged China to reach fourth place in the Global Cup year-to-date ranking.

 

 

The positions between fourth and ninth in the Global Cup year-to-date table are extremely close: there are as little as 65 points between Great Britain in fourth and Italy in seventh, and only 405 points between Great Britain and Canada in ninth, so any of these six nations could swap places between now and the end of the year.

 

Among the key tournaments to watch out for in the next three months are the Karate World Championships - which could cement Japan’s and France’s podium places, and in which Italy was third in 2018 – the Weightlifting World Championships, won by China in 2018 and 2019, the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships, usually Russia’s preserve but with Italy third in 2018 and 2019, and the Track Cycling World Championships, in which both Great Britain and Germany (as well as last year’s winner the Netherlands) have a very strong record.

 

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Greatest Sporting Nation is a ranking of countries based on their performance in top-level international tournaments in sports in which there is genuine global competition. Countries (national teams and/or individual athletes) score Qualifying Points by finishing in the top eight places in Qualifying Events.

These Qualifying Points are then weighted to produce GSN Points, based on a formula that takes into account individual vs team sports, the sport’s participation (number of countries) and the frequency (annual/biennial/quadrennial) of the tournaments.

The Country scoring the most Points in a calendar year wins the Global Cup for that year. The country that scores the most points relative to its population wins the Per Capita Cup. For a more detailed explanation, please refer to the ‘How It Works’ section on the site.