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.

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.

IKF Guide to Korfball Coaching Book orderform

Mail your order to: office@ikf.org

A carton contains 23 books. All prices are excluding postage costs.

Payment and delivery conditions:

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The following IKF officials will guide the IKF U23 World Korfball Championship in Barcelona.

The event will take place between 13 – 20 October 2012.

The Catalan Korfball Federation prepares an excellent tournament for the 12 strongest under 23 year teams in the world.

Mr Frank Buvens is the IKF responsible tournament coordinator.

IKF ICT responsible: Pierre Coppens

IKF Press Liaison Officer: Graham Crafter

IKF Photographer: Marco Spelten