The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) recently updated the WBSC/KONAMI Women's Softball World Rankings to include the results from the three groups of the U18 Softball World Cup Group Stage, some friendly tournaments and the 2024 European Softball Championships. Most notable was the Women’s European Softball Championship in Utrecht, where Team Italy reclaimed the Euro title after a three-year drought on September 7, 2024. Great Britain secured the silver medal, while the Kingdom of the Netherlands settled for the bronze. As a result, the European nations gained the most amount of points in the rankings.
Compared to the previous rankings on July 23, 2024, the top four positions remained unchanged (USA, Japan, Puerto Rico and Chinese Taipei). The most significant change was the Kingdom of the Netherlands (2739 points) rising to fifth place for the first time in its history and becoming the first European country to move beyond sixth place. The Kingdom of the Netherlands gained one position at the expense of Canada (2685), which fell to sixth place and maintained a margin of only 180 points (compared to 606 on July 23rd) over seventh-ranked Team Italy (2505).
The Czech Republic (2174) rose two positions to eighth place, overtaking Mexico (1967) and Australia (1791). Great Britain gained three positions (11th with 1535 points) and passed by China, Spain and Cuba. Both Israel (14th with 1046 points) and Germany (15th with 1025 points) rose four positions while gained three positions (17th with 968 points). Other significant moves by Euro nations included Greece (22nd), Belgium (29th), Switzerland (32nd) and Sweden (37th), which climbed seven, nine, ten and nineteen positions respectively.
The top six countries ranked as of December 31, 2024 will automatically participate in the The World Games Chengdu 2025 in China from August 13-17, 2025. China, as the host nation, will be the seventh participant. The eighth and final country will be chosen via wild card.
WBSC/KONAMI WOMEN'S SOFTBALL WORLD RANKINGS
Forza #Italia!
by Roberto Angotti
(Photo of Team Italy slugger McKenzie Barbara in action against Great Britain on September 7, 2024 by RL-Mate)
