Canada's double gold performance at the 2008 Men's and Women's World Curling Championships has solidified that country's top placement in the World Curling Federation's World Curling Rankings following the close of the 2007-08 curling season.

For the second straight year, Canada captured both men's and women's titles to extend the distance between first and second place. In the Women's Rankings Canada (928 points) extended its lead over Sweden (725 points) while in the Men's Rankings, Canada leaped ahead of Scotland by over 300 points, at 1,038 to 724.

Canada's champions were Team Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg, who defeated Team China in the final of the Ford World Women's in Vernon, Canada, and Team Kevin Martin of Edmonton, victors over Scotland in the World Men's finale in Grand Forks, USA.

2007-08 was also the season of Chinese curling. Following years of high-performance training and preparation, China's women's team skipped by Bingyu Wang won the Ford World Women's round-robin and the first playoff game to qualify for the global championship final. They finished with a 2-1 record over Canada's Jones and their silver medal, coupled with Japan's fourth-place finish, marked the best Asian curling performance in world curling history. This is reflected by China's Rankings jump from 12th position up to ninth, ahead of Germany, Italy and Russia.

Meanwhile, China made their World Men's debut in Grand Forks and recovered from a poor start to qualify for the playoff round. Playoff losses culminating in a fourth-place finish saw the squad, skipped by Fengchun Wang, still rise an impressive seven positions to 14th place in the Men's Rankings.

"This year's World Curling Rankings revealed a variety of movement," remarked Les Harrison, president of the World Curling Federation.

"We saw Canada extend their lead, and we saw the rise of the Pacific region overall. We also witnessed some established curling powers drop further down the Rankings.

"This is truly a new world of curling."

The World Curling Rankings track and list the success of all 43 Member Associations of the World Curling Federation at competitions including the Pacific Championships, the Le Gruyère European Championships, the World Championships and the Olympic Winter Games.

Points are assigned for top-level placements at each competition, with lower point values assigned for events dating from the previous six curling seasons.

Denmark moved in different directions as the women's team, which captured silver in 2007, finished fifth in 2008 to confirm a two-point jump into the top five. Meanwhile the men's squad, which struggled to sub-par win/loss records both years, dropped two places to fall out of the top 10.

The men's teams from France and Australia were both big movers, with each jumping three places into the top 10. It was a last-stone, last-gasp miss from Australia in their final World Men's round-robin game versus Norway which kept the Aussies and French out of the tiebreaker round, and a chance for further advancement.

A number of emerging curling nations also showed their future potential for world championship qualification. On the men's side, Slovakia made the highest move (five places) apart from China, while Lithuania (three), Croatia (two) and Spain (two) also impressed. Both Ireland, a recent worlds qualifier, and the Czech Republic, who appeared at the 2008 Worlds for the first time, improved by four Rankings points.

On the women's side, Austria and Australia both improved by two Rankings points, while Estonia and Croatia each moved up three placements. Lithuania made the single largest women's move, by four points.

The top 10 teams for both the Women's and Men's World Curling Rankings follow, with point totals and +/- notation.

For the full Rankings list of all WCF Member Associations, please see "Rankings" on this World Curling Federation website.