Women's Softball World Rankings update: United States, Japan and Puerto Rico lead the way
The United States (4,301 points), Japan (2,899) and Puerto Rico (2,815) maintained the top three spots in the WBSC Women's Softball World Rankings after the latest update, which includes the outcome of the WBSC U-15 Women's Softball World Cup and the WBSC Oceania U-18 Women's Softball World Cup Qualifier.
Chinese Taipei (2,573) surpassed Canada (1,885) to move into fourth place while Italy (1,816) gained two spots up into sixth place, representing the most improved programme among the top 10 and the highest ranking for Europe's top women's softball programme.
The Netherlands (1,602) and Czechia (1,483) moved up one place while Australia (1,379) slipped three positions to settle at No. 10.
Cuba climbed three places and is now at position No. 11 with 953 points.
The Philippines (898 points in 14th position), Singapore (258 points in 31st) and Hong Kong (223 points in 33rd) were the best improvers moving up seven places each while there were two new entries - Sweden in 56th place and American Samoa in 64th.
The latest update to the WBSC Women's Softball World Rankings ranks 65 National Programmes covering the five Olympic Continents.
The points calculation includes results of tournaments over a four year period, which means for this update the points from the U-19 Women's Softball World Cup 2019, Pan Am Games, an Americas Continental Olympic qualifier as well as other continental events in 2019 have expired.