MADRID, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Spain remain first and second in the FIBA World Ranking Women following the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, which was celebrated on the island of Tenerife (Canary Islands) a week ago.
The United States remain top of the ranking after winning their third consecutive world title after beating Australia in the final, which was played on September 30th.
The Australians move into third place ahead of France in the rankings, but were unable to overhaul Spain after the hosts of the 2018 event defeated Belgium to win the bronze medal.
Meanwhile China's impressive Basketball World Cup campaign in which they defeated Latvia and Senegal before beating Asian champions, Japan to qualify for the quarter-finals, sees them climb from 10th up to 7th in the world.
Belgium and Nigeria also made progress up the rankings, with the Belgians' impressive World Cup lifting them from 28th to 16th in the world, while Nigeria climbed 15 places from 34th to 19th.
The African champions not only claimed their first ever win in a group phase in Tenerife, but built on that success to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in their history.
