Belgium are the new World Beach Korfball champions

Belgium beat Hungary 2-0 in the final in China. The Netherlands take bronze.

Belgium are the new IKF World Beach Korfball champions. Earlier today they beat Hungary 2-0 in the final and lifted the trophy, after three days and 64 matches between 16 teams. Hungary came into the tournament as the number one team in the world rankings, with Chinese Taipei second and the Netherlands third. Belgium were fourth.

A rematch with something to settle

The final was the second time Belgium and Hungary had met in two days, and the first meeting had not gone Belgium’s way.

The first meeting came in the second group stage on Saturday. Belgium won the first set 6-2. Hungary answered by taking the second 4-3, which left the sets level at one each and sent the match to a shoot-out. Hungary won it and finished top of Group E, with Belgium second.

That result decided who would play whom. Belgium went into a semi-final against the Netherlands and won 2-0. Hungary beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 in the other semi. So on Sunday afternoon the two teams from Group E met again, with the title at stake this time.

Belgium won the final 2-0, in straight sets (4-1 and 5-4).

The Netherlands took bronze, beating Chinese Taipei 2-0 in the bronze final.

How the weekend unfolded

Day one was a first group stage with four groups of four. Hungary, Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands and Belgium each won theirs, and Belgium did it with three straight wins over the USA, Singapore and Poland.

On day two the groups were redrawn from the day 1 results. The top groups played for places one to eight and two played for nine to sixteen. Belgium, Hungary, Türkiye and Thailand were drawn together in Group E. Along with the shoot-out loss to Hungary, Belgium beat Türkiye 2-0 and Thailand 2-1 after a shoot-out of their own. Their only defeat of the weekend still put them through to the semi-finals.

Türkiye finished fifth, ahead of Thailand, Poland and Portugal. Czechia took ninth, followed by China, Hong Kong China and the USA. Japan, France, India and Singapore completed the field in places 13 to 16.

Mixed teams on the sand

Every team has women and men playing as equals. The top scorers show how much both contribute. Among the women, Xing Xiwen of China and Wu Pei-Yun of Chinese Taipei finished level on 21 goals. Kanazawa Yu of Japan, Kristyna Holubcikova of Czechia and Phutnapa Jaednuan of Thailand each scored 19.