Olympics-bound Belgium and Nigeria on the rise, as USA maintain top spot in FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike
12/02/2020
Ranking
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Olympics-bound Belgium and Nigeria on the rise, as USA maintain top spot in FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike

MIES (Switzerland) - The updated FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike saw USA maintain their status as the top-ranked country ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament draw, with a number of teams using successful FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments to boost their positions.

Having booked their ticket to the Olympics at home in Ostend, Belgium (585.7) were the biggest winners as they jumped two spots into seventh place after registering wins over Japan and Sweden.

Their rise came at the expense of Serbia and China, who lost a spot each despite seeing their overall ranking point tally increase as they too locked in Olympic berths. As the ranking considers the results from the past eight years, these changes are also in part to do with the gradually shifting weighting for previous years.

Meanwhile, Nigeria (366.6) leaped three positions to establish themselves at #14 after clinching Olympic qualification in Belgrade, Serbia. The top-ranked African team topped continental rivals Mozambique and came close to forcing upsets against two Top 10 ranked teams in USA and Serbia.

The 19th-ranked Korea (333.3) closed the gap to Great Britain (333.5), one position above, after edging them to the Olympic spot in Group B in the Serbian capital.

In general, most of the teams participating in the FIBA Women's Olympic Basketball Tournaments 2020 also grew their overall points total, even if it did not translate to positions gained.

The two other teams that did make upward moves were Sweden (315.0) and Mozambique (153.1). Sweden rose two positions to enter the Top 20, while Mozambique got a seven-position bounce and are now ranked #36.

Click here to view the full ranking.

The February ranking update is the final one ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament draw and will be used to determine the seeding. The draw ceremony is set to take place on March 20, 2020.

The FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike will next be updated following the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

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