Fiji Pearls Drop to No. 17
Botswana has climbed seven places in the International Netball Federation rankings and is now sitting in the 24th position after winning the Nations Cup in Singapore early this month.
Botswana, who had the lowest ranking going into the event at 31st, confidently overcame Fiji Pearls in the final to be crowned 2022 champions.
Fiji after suffering two defeats to Botswana, drop from 15th to 17th position.
Fiji was walloped 60-43 in the round robin series before they were thrashed 65-37 in the final.
The other three countries in the Singapore Nations Cup were Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore. Singapore A came in to even the number of participating teams.
Only Fiji and Singapore will take part in the World Cup in Cape Town South Africa from July 28 to August 6, 2023.
Fiji is in Pool A with top ranked Australia, Tonga (No. 8) and Zimbabwe (No. 13) while Singapore is in Pool D along with number two New Zealand, Uganda (No. 7) and Trinidad & Tobago (No. 11).
Pool B: England (No.3), Scotland (No.10), Malawi (No.6) and Barbados (No.14); Pool C: South Africa (No.5), Jamaica (No. 4), Wales (No.9) and Sri Lanka (No.16).
World Netball updated the World Netball (WN) World Rankings after including results from the SPAR Diamond Challenge and Nations Cup
Singapore, the last two fixtures in the international netball calendar for 2022.
The two events have taken the total matches played in this ranking year since the annual update on the 1st March up to 233, a record for World Netball.
The latest update sees no change to
the positions of the top five teams in the WN World Rankings, with Australia remaining first, New Zealand second, England third, Jamaica fourth and South Africa fifth after the Proteas finished unbeaten in the SPAR Diamond Challenge in November.
Scotland and Zimbabwe also re
tained their respective 10th and 13th positions following their 41 – 41 draw at the Challenge, despite both losing to South Africa.
Other teams that added more matches to their tallies included Botswana, Fiji, Ireland, Malaysia and Singapore who all played in the Asia Nations Cup on December 4-11 at the OCBC Arena in Singapore.
Singapore rose from 30th to 27th after claiming third place at the Singapore Nations Cup, whilst Ireland, who finished fourth, and Malaysia, who finished fifth, both drop places to 31st and 30th position respectively.