Volleyball Challenger Cup 2023

Challenger Cup winners France jump four spots up World Ranking

Runners-up Qatar gain two positions in the men’s chart

Published 02:23, 31 Jul 2023

French players celebrate

The women’s national volleyball team of France not only achieved a historic success by winning the Volleyball Challenger Cup 2023 and qualifying for Volleyball Nations League 2024, but also made substantial gains in the FIVB Women’s Volleyball World Ranking, jumping four spots up in comparison to their position before the event in Laval.

Watch Volleyball Challenger Cup 2023 highlights and replays on VBTV

France won all three of their matches on the way to the Challenger Cup trophy to gain a total of 10.75 points towards the ranking and leap from number 21 to number 17 on a new total of 168.24, surpassing Colombia, Czechia, Mexico and Ukraine in the process. It was for the straight-set semifinal win against Ukraine that the French collected the most points, 5.06. To that, they added 2.76 points for the quarterfinal shutout of Vietnam and 2.93 for the four-set victory over Sweden in the gold medal match.

Challenger Cup runners-up Sweden also made a solid ascend of three positions, climbing from number 28 to number 25 on a new total of 133.23 points, overtaking Cuba, Croatia and Slovakia. The Swedes picked up 3.40 points for the five-set quarterfinal win over Mexico and another 4.71 for the 3-1 victory over Colombia in the semis, eventually net-gaining 5.18 points from the competition after losing the final to France.

Sweden’s Isabelle Haak in attack against Colombia

Third-placed Colombia also had a small positive gain in points from their Challenger Cup participation, but with France’s rise, actually dropped a spot to number 18.

Men’s Challenger Cup winners Türkiye were already quite high in the FIVB Men’s Volleyball World Ranking and despite the three wins they achieved in Doha, they stayed put in number 12. They collected a total of 5.30 points for defeating Dominican Republic (1.80), Ukraine (2.32) and Qatar (1.18) to improve to 208.46, but they are still a solid 24.50 points short of catching up with number 11 the Netherlands. Bronze medallists Ukraine also improved in points, but stayed where they were, in number 13.

Runners-up Qatar, however, climbed two spots to number 19, jumping above Egypt and Czechia. The tournament hosts earned 2.41 points for the quarterfinal shutout of Thailand and another 4.87 for the semifinal sweep against Chile, and despite losing 1.18 points in the tight five-set trophy match against Türkiye, moved up the chart on a total of 157.80 points.