NZ third in population-based medal race

IAIN McGREGOR/Fairfax NZ

THIRD AGAIN: New Zealand equestrian eventing team celebrate their bronze medal. This medal and a rowing bronze have NZ in third place on the world-wide population-based medal table.

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New Zealand may be well down the traditional Olympic Games medal table, but based on the size of our population our athletes are putting in a remarkable performance.

Calculations by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) at the end of day five put us in third place on a table that shows the number of medals countries are winning relative to their population.

Looked at from that perspective Qatar with 1.76 million people is atop the table with one bronze medal while Slovenia is second with one gold. New Zealand's two bronzes and 4.4 million people put it third.

When it comes to just gold medals per head, Slovenia is first, Lithuania second, and Georgia third. All three countries have won just one gold medal.

On the traditional table - which ranks countries according to how many golds, then silvers, then bronzes they have won - those three are 19th-equal, Qatar is 39th-equal, and New Zealand is 37th-equal.

China led the traditional table at the end of the fifth day with 17 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals. With 1.3 billion people it was 42nd on SNZ's population-based table.

SNZ said it would be updating its table each working day during the Games.

- © Fairfax NZ News