Gobert joins Haddadi in moving into top five of World Cup shot blockers
JAKARTA (Indonesia) - Rudy Gobert is making his mark in the FIBA Basketball World Cup record books after moving into the top five for blocked shots in the competition.
JAKARTA (Indonesia) - Rudy Gobert and Hamed Haddadi have both moved into the top five for blocked shots in the FIBA Basketball World Cup record books.
Iranian icon Haddadi moved level with Brazil's Anderson Varejao during the opening game of his fourth World Cup campaign, while Gobert joined the duo as France suffered disappointing defeat to Latvia on Sunday.
A three-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Gobert is renowned for his patrolling of the paint and now has 26 rejections to his name in 19 World Cup appearances for Les Bleus across three editions.
Tunisia's Salah Mejri is just one block ahead in fourth spot with Yao Ming and the Gasol brothers occupying the top three in the list since official data was recorded from 1994.
Gobert's teammate Nicolas Batum became the 10th player to register at least 20 blocks having added four to his tally over the first two games of this tournament.
Here's how the current Top 10 stands:
| Rank | Player | Country | Blocks | Games played |
| 1. | Paul Gasol | Spain | 55 | 24 |
| 2. | Marc Gasol | Spain | 43 | 32 |
| 3. | Yao Ming | China | 32 | 14 |
| 4. | Salah Mejri | Tunisia | 27 | 10 |
| 5. | Hamed Haddadi* | Iran | 26 | 16 |
| = | Rudy Gobert* | France | 26 | 19 |
| = | Anderson Varejao | Brazil | 26 | 29 |
| 8. | Dirk Nowitzki | Germany | 23 | 18 |
| 9. | Omer Asik | Turkey | 22 | 16 |
| 10. | Nicolas Batum* | France | 20 | 24 |
*active players in this tournament
FIBA