Our IKF photographer in Barcelona, Marco Spelten, again took many beautiful photos.
We start with a few photos from the match of the day Catalonia – Chinese Taipei.
Hongkong – Germany
China – Portugal
South Africa – Belgium
Netherlands – Australia
India – England
Catalonia and Chinese Taipei left the field to a standing ovation after Chinese Taipei came from four goals down to narrowly beat hosts Catalonia 35 – 32 to stop a European clean sweep on day 4 of the IKF U23 WKC. The game turned when, midway through the second half with Chinese Taipei having reduced a four goal deficit to one goal, the Catalans missed two penalties. Chinese Taipei capitalised by drawing level and then opening out a four goal lead of their own with just six minutes left. Three times the gap was narrowed to two but eventually time ran out with Chinese Taipei winning by three in a game registering 67 goals. Jose Alvarez and Albert Parron Herrera were top scorers for the Catalans with 10 and 9 goals respectively but they were outshone by Shu Ping Chu who overcame her injury of yesterday to score a magnificent 12 goals. Another female player Pin-Fong Chen was next top scorer with 8. Jose is now the joint top scorer in the Championship with 26 goals, whilst Shu Ping Chu and Pin-Fong Chen head the female scorers list with 23 and 19 respectively.
The other five games demonstrated the superiority of European teams over those from the rest of the world. Germany beat Hong Kong China 33 – 9, Portugal beat China 36 – 11, Belgium beat South Africa 40 – 11, The Netherlands beat Australia 46 – 17 (63 goals being just two short of the aggregate in the final match) and England beat India 33 – 14. In total 315 goals were scored in the 6 matches (average 52.5 per game). The 67 goal aggregate is a record for an IKF U23 World Korfball Championship and is only exceeded by the 71 goals scored in one of the pool matches in the IKF World Korfball Championship held last year in China.
Sunday 14 October 2012 saw excellent matches with excitement and tension. See below some photographic impressions
Catalonia – Portugal
South Africa – China
Australia – HongKong
Germany – India
Netherlands – England
Chinese Taipei – Belgium
Hong Kong China recorded their first win against an Indian team in a very entertaining match. The lead changed hands six times in the first half which ended with Hong Kong just leading 14 – 12. In the second period the Hong Kong team gradually extended their lead to finally win 29 – 21. The top ranked teams had a little easier day after the hard matches of yesterday and this showed somewhat in their selections. The Netherlands fielded a completely different eight players against Germany than they did the day before but showed their strength in depth by still managing to beat Germany by 31 goals to 16. Belgium’s selection against Portugal was more of a risk as Portugal ran them quite close. Only two of the starting eight against Chinese Taipei started today although with the Portuguese uncomfortably close they did bring on four more as substitutes late on to close out the match. Belgium held a three goal lead at half time but in the second half only 5 goals were scored by each team, leaviing Belgium winners 19 – 16.
Monday 15 October showed again some remarkable matches. The photos show impressions from this day.
Netherlands – Germany
Enthusiastic crowd
Hongkong – India
Portugal – Belgium
South Africa – Chinese Taipei
England – Australia
Catalonia – China
Two games in the evening session went very much according to form. Chinese Taipei showed no reaction from their hard game against Belgium the day before and unlike some of the other top teams they did not rest their main players, starting this match with 7 out of the 8 that started yesterday. As a result they comfortably beat South Africa 37 – 9 although one of their top female scorers was taken off injured in the second half. The other game going to form was the hosts Catalonia, who beat China 28 -17 winning the first half by 6 and the second half by 5. The middle game of this session, however, almost produced a shock. England rested 7 of their starting 8 and struggled to only lead by two at half time. Even after bringing on three substitutes at half time and their last 13 minutes from the end, the situation did not improve.With 11 minutes left Australia scored to lead by two. However, that was the last goal Australia scored and England scored seven unanswered goals to clinch a very flattering five goal win (19 – 14). Tables
Rank Pool A Points
1 Netherlands U23 9
2 Germany U23 6
3 England U23 6
4 Hong Kong U23 6
5 Australia U23 0
6 India U23 0
Rank Pool B Points
1 Belgium U23 9
2 Chinese Taipei U23 6
3 Catalonia U23 6
4 Portugal U23 3
5 China U23 3
6 South Africa U23 0
The last three games of the day were an excellent advert for korfball and one of the best series of matches at an IKF event for a long time. The first of these was the game between the red hot favourites, The Netherlands, and England where the Dutch were made to work hard for their openings by an England team that defended extremely well. The match was really decided by the greater ability of the Dutch to score under pressure and for the England team to be severely punished whenever they surrendered possession with a misplaced pass. On balance the final goal difference could be thought of as rather flattering the Dutch, they won by eight goals (22 – 14), but the spirited play of the English, especially in defence, won over most of the neutral spectators. This was followed by the battle of the Iberian Peninsula, hosts Catalonia against Portugal, and this proved to be just that. Portugal held a 7 – 5 lead at half time after a half dominated by the defences and some inaccurate shooting, but the second half really livened things up. After Portugal extended their lead to four, Catalonia, roared on by an enthusiastic crowd, hit back to eventually level midway through the second half. We then saw the lead change six times with Catalonia scoring what proved to be the winning goal three minutes from the end and holding on to win 20 – 19. Portugal almost secured golden goal extra time but a shot in the final seconds rolled around the rim a couple of times before dropping outside. Finally the day ended with yet another close and exciting match between the previous Championship bronze and silver medal winners, Belgium and Chinese Taipei. Chinese Taipei held a slender one goal lead at half time but the Belgians were in no mood to allow a similar result to the last Championship. In the second half they gradually inched ahead to lead by four going in to the final minutes. The Chinese cut the lead to one but with less than thirty seconds left the Belgians scored the decisive goal to win 23 – 21.
In the early matches Hong Kong China and Australia continued the close rivalry established in Adelaide last year with Hong Kong holding on to win 21 – 19 after a late Australian rally. The other two games had larger differences in score with China beating South Africa 25 – 14 and Germany beating India 34 – 9, the latter emphasising the superiority of the European teams against most of the Asian teams.
Photos by actionphotography.nl
The first matches in each pool went rather much to form when based on mutual rankings. England beat Hong Kong China 30-12 and Portugal beat South Africa 32-6. In the second pair of pool matches, again the games went very much as the mutual rankings would suggest. Chinese Taipei beat China 36 – 14 and Germany beat Australia 25 – 13. The last pair of matches followed a similar theme with The Netherlands beating India 46 – 12 aand Belgium winning against the hosts Catalonia 36 – 13.
Top scorers for the day were Erwin Zwart (NED), Francy CRIELAARS (NED) and Lras MATTHEYSES (BEL) with 8 goalos each and Ben KING (ENG) Celeste SPLIT (NED), Joe BEDFORD (ENG), Marjolijn KROON and Mick SNEL (NED) all with 7 goals each.
Today the IKF U23 World Korfball Championship started in Barcelona (CAT).
The first 6 matches were played.
Below the first photos:
Mr Frank Buvens, IKF EXCO Member opens the IKF U23 WKC
Opening ceremony
Games on day 2 were not all as one-sided as those on the opening day. The match of the day in the first part of Sunday’s play was the game between holders, and firm favourites, The Netherlands and England. The Dutch were made to work hard for their openings by an England team that defended extremely well. The match was really decided by the greater ability of the Dutch to score under pressure and for the England team to be severely punished whenever they surrendered possession with a misplaced pass. On balance the final goal difference could be thought of as rather flattering the Dutch, they won by eight goals (22 – 14), but the spirited play of the English, especially in defence, won over most of the neutral spectators.
South Africa vs China opened the day and the Chinese eventually made their greater athleticism count by going on to win 25 – 14. The second match between Australia and Hong Kong China fluctuated with who led the match but Hong Kong opened up a gap in the second half and, despite a late Australian rally, managed to hold on to win 21 – 19. The third game of the day, however, emphasised the European teams’ superiority over most of the teams from Asia. Germany, 4th in the European Championship last year, comfortably beat India, who was runners up in the Asia-Oceania Championship, by 34 – 9.