Hungary U19 ousts Portugal to advance to top 8 in U19KWC

In Leeuwarden (NED) today, the first round was played of the U19 Korfball World Cup, the annual open tournament for national U19 teams. Today’s matches did not see many surprising results as most teams did what was expected from them. However, Hungary upset Portugal beating them 9-5, forcing the Iberians to play the remainder of the tournament in the bottom half.

Chinese Taipei, Netherlands, Poland, England, Russia, Belgium and Germany all advanced to the final 8 of the World Cup, as expected. The performance of the Chinese team, for the first time participating in an U19 event, was below expectations as they suffered big losses to all their rivals in the group. Also Morocco, in a first-ever international participation in any official korfball event, lost all matches.

Witnessed by many spectators, the tournament was conducted under a very pleasant athmosphere, with many of the youth teams being hosted by korfball clubs in the Friesland province. The second round will be played on Saturday, with finals on Sunday.