Cuba moves ahead of Tunisia into No. 2 position, Chinese Taipei remain on top in WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Ranking

World champions Cuba moved up from third to second place in the world behind No. 1 Chinese Taipei following the latest update to the WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Ranking, which includes results from the Baseball5 Pan American Championship in Venezuela and a Baseball5 French International tournament in June.

Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela finished in the top three of the Baseball5 Pan American Championship to qualify for the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2024, which will take place in Hong Kong, China from 7-12 October. The fourth participating team, Puerto Rico, returns to the WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Ranking for the first time since featuring in 33rd place in the inaugural ranking on 12.01.2023.

Meanwhile, France maintained their No. 4 world ranking after defeating world No. 25 Spain to repeat as Baseball5 French International (Internationaux de France) champions. The tournament in Toulouse, which also featured the Lithuania national team, saw Saudi Arabia make their Baseball5 international debut and therefore appear on the WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Ranking for the very first time.

In No. 1 position Chinese Taipei remain at the summit of the WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Rankings, maintaining its lead with 3,306 points having won the 2022 and 2024 editions of the Baseball5 Asia Cup and the Youth Asia Cup 2023 while finishing third at the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2022.

Tunisia, who dropped from second to third position, and Japan in fifth, round out the top five.

South Africa are in sixth place while Mexico and South Korea have swapped places with Mexico now in seventh place with 1,896 points, overtaking South Korea, which now sits in eighth on 1,811 points. China and Lithuania remain in ninth and 10th positions with 1,476 and 1,342 points, respectively.

Venezuela has made the most significant move, ascending to 13th position with 1,127 points, surpassing Malaysia and Kenya.

With Baseball5’s continued growing popularity, the WBSC/KONAMI Baseball5 World Ranking now includes 50 national team programmes for the first time ever, up from 48 in the previous edition (16.05.2024) and one more than the previous high of 49 on 31.12.2023. The newcomers Puerto Rico and Saudi Arabia join a list which already covers the five Olympic continents, and had previously seen France become the first European programme to reach No. 1 across any WBSC World Ranking and Tunisia reach a record high for an African nation of No. 2.