MIES, Switzer­land — The lat­est FI­BA World Rank­ing for Women has re­vealed a seis­mic shift in the glob­al bas­ket­ball land­scape, with Caribbean na­tions mak­ing sig­nif­i­cant strides up the lad­der.

While the Unit­ed States con­tin­ues its undis­put­ed reign at the top with 1076.1 points, the re­al sto­ry for fans in the re­gion is the im­pres­sive up­ward mo­bil­i­ty of sev­er­al is­land na­tions.

The Ba­hamas has emerged as the stand­out per­former in the Caribbean, leap­ing an as­tound­ing 20 spots to claim rank No 67 glob­al­ly. With 97.8 points, the Ba­hami­an squad has sig­nalled their in­tent to be­come a ma­jor force in the re­gion.

Right be­hind them in terms of mo­men­tum are the U.S. Vir­gin Is­lands. The ter­ri­to­ry climbed 16 places to land at No 48 with 138.1 points. This sig­nif­i­cant jump places them as the third-high­est-ranked Caribbean team in the world, be­hind on­ly Puer­to Ri­co and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Fur­ther down the ta­ble, Guyana record­ed the largest point move­ment of any na­tion in the up­date. The Guyanese squad sky­rock­et­ed 23 places to rank No 95 (52.6 points), mark­ing the biggest climb of any team in the rank­ing.

Among the tra­di­tion­al pow­er­hous­es, Puer­to Ri­co re­mains the high­est-ranked Caribbean side. Las Boricuas moved up one spot to No 12 with 543.5 points, sit­ting just be­hind Cana­da (No 11) and Brazil (No 10).

The Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic al­so con­tin­ued its as­cent, mov­ing up four spots to No 32 with 206.1 points.

Ja­maica al­so saw pos­i­tive move­ment, ris­ing four places to No 105 (40 points). While they sit at the bot­tom of the Caribbean peck­ing or­der in this up­date, the up­ward trend is a pos­i­tive sign.

Not all news was pos­i­tive for the re­gion. Cu­ba ex­pe­ri­enced a slight set­back, drop­ping two spots to No 52 with 127.1 points. They were the on­ly Caribbean na­tion to see a de­crease in their rank­ing in this up­date.

At the very top, the USA re­mains un­touch­able with ze­ro move­ment. Brazil and Cana­da both ex­pe­ri­enced slight drops (down one and four spots re­spec­tive­ly), al­low­ing Puer­to Ri­co to close the gap in the top 15.

Top Caribbean Rank­ings (FI­BA Women’s World Rank­ing):

Puer­to Ri­co: No 12 (+1)

Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic: No 32 (+4)

Vir­gin Is­lands: No 48 (+16)

Cu­ba: No 52 (-2)

Ba­hamas: No 67 (+20)

Guyana: No 95 (+23)

Ja­maica: No 105 (+4)

CMC