Dutch Korfballleague finals live on the Internet

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Saturday 5 April 2014 the finals of the Dutch korfball league will be played in AHOY, Rotterdam. In close cooperation with KNKV and the Dutch public Tv we will be able to live webcast the matches with a native English speaker in the sports venue AHOY.

The matches will be published thru the ikfchannel on YouTube. The links will be published on the IKF and KNKV websites

The matches start (Amsterdam time):
1630 PM : Fortuna/MHIR – Dalto/BNApp.nl
1900 PM : TOP/Justlease.nl – PKC/Hagero

We will have 2 streams for each of these matches. One with a Dutch speaker and one with an English speaker.

Photos by korfballphoto.com, Erik Mulder

U19 Korfball World Cup

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From Friday 18 April till Sunday 20 April the next U19 Korfball World Cup will be played in Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Thirteen teams will be in competition in 2014.

The pools are:

Pool A Pool B
Romania Belgium
England Czech Republic
Portugal Catalonia
Belgium B* Brazil
Pool C Pool D
Germany The Netherlands
Chinese Taipei Russia
China Morocco
U19 North* U19 East*
* out of   competition

Costa Rica likely to become new IKF member

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A new country is set to join the international korfball community, following recent initiatives in Costa Rica.

While the IKF Pan American Korfball Championship was in progress in Brazil end January begin February 2014, a programme of associated activities also took place for the Latin American members of the korfball family. Included among these was the presentation of the Asociación Costarricense de Korfball, or Costa Rican Korfball Association (ACOKORF), by its president Ms Rosaura Méndez.

As vice-president of Costa Rica’s Universitarian Sports Federation, Rosaura Méndez is already well-known in her own country’s sporting circles. Her credentials also extend to the international sphere as an executive member of the International University Sports Federation (FISU).

In outlining ACOKORF’s strategies for the development of korfball in Costa Rica, Rosaura Méndez presented a technical plan to educate physical education teachers in various universities with an IKF Level II course scheduled for the coming summer. ACOKORF also intends to apply for IKF membership in the next few months.

To further increase her own understanding of korfball, Rosaura Méndez, along with two of the co-ordinators of the educational programme for universities TEC and Universidad Nacional, is planning to visit The Netherlands in May 2014.

Brazil wins Pan American Korfball title and qualifies for IKF World Korfball Championship

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With a clear and deserved 20-10 victory over Colombia, Brazil has won the First IKF Pan American Championship, and has qualified for next year’s IKF World Korfball Championship in Belgium.

Following yesterdays golden goal victory against Colombia, Brazil was a light favorite for the title, but a close match was expected. The first 15 minutes Colombia was the better team, with a well-organized European style defense organized by coach Tilbert La Haye. Despite the considerable length disadvantage, Colombia daring took the lead with a goal by Stephanie Canizales. Brazil had difficulty keeping the score level in the first 15 minutes, due to the tight defense, but also avoided the Colombian women making the large number of goals that they made yesterday. However, after 20 minutes, leading 4-3, Brazil in three minutes increased the gap to 7-3 with goals by Wallace Cruz, Fernanda Cardoso, and Daniel Ferreira. The gap gave Colombia a strong blow, from which it never recovered in the remainder of the game. After the half-time break, Brazil cruised to 12-7, when Colombia suddenly made two goals and a short tense period occurred in which the Colombians had several opportunities to close the gap to 2. Andressa Silva however took away any further expectations of the Colombian by scoring 13-9 in the 39th minute. After that, the match was over and Brazil easily expanded the gap to finally win by 20-10. Michele Iatarola and David Ferreira lead the Brazilian scorelist with 5 each, and Juan Lerma topped the Colombia list with 4. Brazil’s women performed very well in defense, keeping the Colombian women to only 3 goals, while they scored 8 between them.

Brazil 1st IKF Pan American Korfball Champion

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Brazil is the first IKF Pan American Korfball Champion.

In the final they did beat Colombia 20 – 10. At half time the Brazilians were 7-3 in the lead. The topscorers in the final are Michele Iatarola and Daniel Ferreira, both from Brazil, each with 5 goals. (more to follow)

Daniel Ferreira was the male topscorer with 20 goals in the event. Michele Iatarola was the female topscorer with 18 goals.

Update: Brazil beats Colombia 14-13 (GG)

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This morning’s match showed the true level of competition in Latin America as the two strongest countries, Brazil and Colombia, met each other for the first time. The match was dominated by high pressure defense from both sides and repeated breaches of the shot clock time limit, resulting in very few goals at half time (5-5). In the second half, Brazil managed gradually to take a lead of 9-12 just a couple of minutes before the final whistle, but miraculously Colombia came alongside, only to give away a goal with less then 20 second on the clock. The last long distance shot was a score however, and the first golden period in Latin America started. Brazil was the luckiest here, but the expectations have been set for tomorrow’s final, which will likely see these two countries playing each other again. (more later)

Colombia and Brazil, clear candidates to play the final for the IKF Pan American Korfball Championship

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After the first day of competition, countries participating in the tournament settled their possibilities for the upcoming days:  Colombia and Brazil are the candidates to play the final after their good results of the first day and it appears that the Mexican team is going to be too weak at this moment to be a contender for the other two countries in the tournament.

After the withdrawal of Argentina, the Colombian team reinforced their aspirations to fight against Brazil for the place in the next IKF World Korfball Championship. A consistent victory of 14-23against the second team of Brazil, replacing Argentina after their withdrawal, is going to boost the aspirations of the Colombians against the host country. The game was close in the first 10 minutes, but after an impressive scoring performance of the Colombian girls the difference was bigger before the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second half the game was very well controlled. Great performance indeed of all the Colombian girls who showed great capacities to score goals and specially Virgina Caicedo who finally became the best scorer of the game with 5 goals.

In the other game of the day Brazil presented its credentials as a main candidate to be the first Latin American country in the IKF World Korfball Championships. The host team beat Mexico by 40-7 lead by Daniel Ferreira and Michelle Iatarola, each of them with 10 goals,  and could show in front of their crowd all their potential.

Brazil impresses with large victory over Mexico

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Brazil impressed most at the first day of the IKF Pan American Korfball Championship in Americana, S.P., Brazil. They beat the inexperienced Mexican team 40-7. Rivillini took most of the goals for Brazil, with Moreno of Mexico scoring 3. In the other match, Colombia also showed a strong performance well ahead of expectations, by beating the Brazil reserve team (Brazil B) by 24-15 in an unofficial match. Showing this performance, Brazil and Colombia are the clear favorites for Sunday’s final. They will play each other Saturday morning in the first round of the competition.

(more later)

Brazil eager to perform for ‘torcida’

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In the final days leading up to the 2014 IKF Pan American Korfball Championship the host team has prepared in Americana, Sao Paulo, under Portuguese coach Jorge Alves, with an intensive programme of daily training sessions and a full schedule of promotional activities.

Twenty players, led by Rio de Janeiro State Federation (FECRJ) president Daniel Rivillini and members of Sao Paolo State Federation (FCESP) Luciana Bortoleto and Thiago Barbacena, have undertaken numerous promotions, aiming to encourage school students to support the Brazilian team participating in the event, as well as a large network of physical education teachers in the area. Activities have been held in the Escola Sesi Santa Barbara, Escola Objetivo, ETEC Americana, Esesc Sao Paulo, Metrocamp Campinas, Ses Americana and UNE Sao Paulo

This is a great opportunity for the Brazilian team to perform in front of local supporters, and consolidate progress since their two-week training camp in Portugal in February 2013.

In front of its own ‘torcida’ and determined to put on a great show, the squad is focused on becoming the first continental champion, thereby qualifying for 2015 IKF World Korfball Championship.

Withdrawal of Argentina

Unfortunately, the Argentinean Korfball Association has advised the IKF that, due to the difficult economic situation in its own country, the Argentinean team was not able to raise the funding necessary to participate in the 2014 IKF Pan American Korfball Championship.

The competition committee has decided to maintain the schedule of four teams, including a second team from Brazil to replacing Argentina. Games played by this team will, however, be out of the competition.

Players anxiously awaiting start of first Panamerican

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With less than 7 house to go until the first match, the anxiety is building up in the athlete hotel. Without any exception, this Championship is their first official international experience, albeit that Brazil played a friendly match in Portugal last year. Many have gone through great financial difficulty next to the required many hours of training, to get to Americana and participate in this event. All are extremely proud to be able to represent their country, and we are expecting to see quite a few suppressed tears when the first national anthems will be played at the venue. Emotions are a part of sport in any place, but here in Latin America, “Emotions” need to be written with a capital E.
Having said that, for the korfball watcher the most interesting fact coming out of this tournament will be the answer to the million-dollar question who will be the qualifier for next year’s World Championship. Apart from World Champion The Netherlands and host Belgium, the PanAm14 will decide the third qualified country, and the first-ever Latin American participant.
Since none of these countries have played each other before, it is hard to make a prediction. It is clear Mexico has the shortest history in korfball, and have only very recently been in touch with international coaches to start training to increase playing level. For sure, they are the outsider of the event and tonight’s match against Brazil will show how big the performance gap is with the country that has been the only one to travel to Europe. Brazil had an extensive and focused preparation, with the team spending two full weeks together in the last two weeks, forging a string and unified team with players from both Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro states. Some of the players are local from Americana and for sure will receive wide support from the fans.

Colombia has had the opportunity of training with the best teams in the world around last year’s World Games tournament. The question is to what extent they will be able yo convert this experience into a sound performance on the floor this week. Today, Colombia will play an unofficial match against Brazil B, which has been scheduled in the event due to the inability of the Argentina Federation to overcome the financial problems that the country has been facing in recent weeks.
Tonight we’ll know more. Keep following us on korfball.org for updates, and follow the event on Twitter via #PanAm14!