The International World Games Association (IWGA) and Birmingham Organising Committee (BOC) agreed on April 2nd to postpone the 11th edition of The World Games until 7th to 17th July 2022. The korfball competition will take place 13 – 17 July. The Games had originally been planned to take place from 15–25 July next year in Birmingham, in the state of Alabama, USA.
The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) decision to move the Tokyo Olympic Games to July 2021 made a significant impact on the planning of The World Games in Birmingham. Keeping to the original dates in July 2021 would have meant excluding many athletes and officials involved in the Olympics, and would have led to a potential reduction in public and media interest. When the IOC announced its decision, the BOC urgently set about assessing what alternative dates might be viable, particularly as regards venues and accommodation. Meanwhile, the staff of the IWGA were establishing when the vital services provided by key partners, such as SwissTiming and International Sports Broadcasting, could still be made available.
It soon became clear that only one 10-day period existed in which venues, accommodation and key partner support could be guaranteed: 7–17 July 2022. The IWGA Member Federations with sports on the programme gave their full support to delaying The World Games, and the joint decision of the IWGA and BOC Boards to adopt these new dates was unanimously approved by the federations in a video conference.
Jan Fransoo: “The IKF understands and fully supports the decision made by the IWGA and BOC to postpone the World Games until 2022, and has full confidence that the 2022 Games will be a great celebration of sports. With the Olympic Games being moved to 2021this was the most viable option to do justice to the Games in Birmingham. The IKF would like to expresses its gratitude towards everyone involved within the IWGA and BOC for the quick acting after the announcement of the IOC. Having the new dates for the event available creates clarity and enables us to look at the consequences of this decision for the international korfball competions calendar. The IKF Executive Committee will meet within the next few days to discuss the impact of the new dates for The World Games on the IKF competition calendar for 2020-2023. Also other effects of the current corona crisis will be part of that discussion.”
The new dates for Korfball in the official sports program schedule are 13 – 17 July 2022.
See: Official website The World Games 2022
The eight countries qualified for TWG 2022 after the IKF World Korfball Championship 2019 in order of the current World Ranking are:
1. The Netherlands
2. Belgium
3. Chinese Taipei
4. China
5. Germany
6. Portugal
7. Czech Republic
8. Suriname
The pools were announced on 26 February, during a live draw on the IKF Channel (see below). The pools are:
POOL A:
– The Netherlands
– Chinese Taipei
– Portugal
– Czech Republic
POOL B:
– Belgium
– China
– Germany
– Suriname
