Now, the 35-nation format can achieve more.
It was the last match in the Tr-Nations format before Argentina join to make it a four-team tournament next year.
Using the Nations' Cup format adapted from show jumping, the United States equestrian team's reining horse squad won the first internationally sanctioned reining horse competition at the team's Festival of Champions yesterday in Gladstone, N.J.
While sales may be on the wane – and illegal downloading on the rise – CDs remain the nation's favoured format, accounting for 76.1% of total sales last year, compared with a 23.5% market share for digital and 0.3% for vinyl.
What should have been a routine vote by 170 nations on an electronic document format turned into an ugly imbroglio, replete with ethics probes and even street protests.
Some nations have criticised the format as not reflecting the 21st century world.
Philosophical nationalists claim that the nation is the right format for preserving and encouraging such identity-providing communities.
How will Caribbean teams or weaker South American nations take advantage of the format?
A format comprising 10 nations allows for a 29-day, 18-match competition that will give every team an opportunity to fly their nation's flag with pride, knowing also that simply being there is an achievement.
There's even a second tier set-up that could see changes made to the current format should other nations improve, and the competition between the current crop couldn't be fiercer.
The developing swimming nations overwhelmingly embrace the current format of preliminaries followed by a 16-athlete semifinal and culminating in an eight-swimmer forallfor all individual events shorter than 400 meters.
