Italy lead multiple European climbers in FIBA World Ranking Women

Italy move up two spots into 14th place with 396.8 points. They are rewarded as one of just four nations who punched their ticket to this year's flagship event holding unbeaten records

Italy are celebrating a newly gained top 15 spot in the latest FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike, thanks to a perfect qualifying campaign for the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023.

Winning all six games and most pertinently, the four played following the previous edition of the ranking issued after the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022, Italy move up two spots into 14th place with 396.8 points. They are rewarded as one of just four nations who punched their ticket to this year’s flagship event holding unbeaten records.

With no changes to the top 13 ranking places, the other significant movers were also competitors in the FIBA Women’s EuroBasket 2023 Qualifiers during November 2022 and February 2023.

With 302.5 points, Great Britain step back into the top 20 after moving above Montenegro, who will also appear at the main event in June. The same can be said of both Slovakia and Czech Republic. They now have 285.4 points in 22nd place, compared to 278.7 points for Czech Republic in 23rd.

Other big winners included Hungary, up three places to 24th after increasing their points tally to 275.9, while there were significant climbs for Austria and North Macedonia. They achieved surprise wins in their respective qualifying campaigns, with Austria advancing a massive 21 places to 84th with 76.3 points and North Macedonia enjoying a rise of 13 places to 67th on 94.4 points.

In Africa, Egypt and Mozambique are looking upwards now after attaining impressive climbs off the back of a successful campaign in the FIBA Women’s AfroBasket 2023 Qualifiers.

Egypt beat Uganda in the AfroBasket Qualifiers in Kampala and that contributed to them moving up three spots to 39th with 156.1 points. Mozambique rode past rivals Angola to take the only ticket on offer and subsequently find themselves up four places to 43rd with 148.6 points.

Since the previous update of the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike, only European and African teams have participated in official FIBA events. There were no competitions in Americas, Asia or Oceania.