Cross-finals today determined the match ups for tomorrow’s final ranking games.

New Zealand met Macau in the day’s first game with both teams aiming to finish the tournament in fifth place. Although New Zealand asserted control early via pace, power and domination in the rebound, ensuring Macau never really threatened, the Kiwis’ lack of shooting accuracy was a source of frustration for coach Mark Garrett, particularly against a team that offered less defensive pressure than the others his players have encountered this week. Rosa Cooper was again a major scoring threat, notching five for the game. Meanwhile, her team mates in the other division were making much harder work of finding the korf, as a consequence of which they spent around 40 of the 50 minutes in the attack. By the end, despite the inaccuracy, New Zealand sealed an easy 17-5 victory.

To establish who would meet New Zealand to decide fifth place tomorrow, Malaysia and Korea took the court next. Both have made good progress this week. In this contest, though, Korea was never a serious threat. Malaysia’s Randy Ho Kang Lip combines strength in the rebound with a reliable shot. His eight goals made a major contribution to his team prevailing here. For Korea, although Hyun Joo Jo scored seven, he also missed three penalties, which Malaysia doubly punished each time with a goal soon after. Malaysia’s 21-12 win sets up an interesting play-off tomorrow.

Indonesia and Japan had their final game today, deciding the ninth and tenth rankings, and will not feature tomorrow. Japan had the edge all game as youngster Ren Nagai showed what a prospect he is, scoring eight goals. Exhibiting much better form than yesterday, Indonesia never let the deficit grow to more than two goals. Both teams were afflicted by missed penalties, with Indonesia missing four and Japan two. For five long minutes at the end of the game, Indonesia was just one goal adrift, fighting desperately to bring the scores level. In the final minute Japan scored to extend the lead, Indonesia replied to cut it back again, then Japan had the final say to clinch ninth place by 18-16.

Game Four was the first semi-final, and ended up as one of the best games of the tournament. Australia started well, taking a three goal lead, then Hong Kong turned up the intensity to claw it back to even at 6-6, before Australia edged in front again for a half-time score of 10-8. After 33 minutes, Hong Kong briefly took a two goal lead of its own, to the delight of the crowd, but that only lasted for a minute as Craig Miller converted first a free pass then a penalty. After that, Hong Kong never took the lead again, although with three minutes left to play, the difference was just a single goal. Three quick goals, to Adam Robertson, then two to Josh Berney, put it beyond doubt and Australia remains unbeaten, living to fight for gold tomorrow, by a margin of 21-16.

Contesting the other place in the final, China and Chinese Taipei fought out the last match of the day. While China scored first and then led briefly by 2-1, after that Chinese Taipei stepped up and dominated as they do so emphatically. Captain Ricky Wu led the way with six goals, though he is also involved in making opportunities for his team mates, and Ping-fong Chen and Chen-yu Kao also both scored six each. At 21 minutes, leading by ten goals via a scoreline of 15-5, Chinese Taipei had essentially sealed the victory. Neither team relaxed, though, and Chinese Taipei even staggered its practise of substituting all eight starters just after half time, giving its starting players more minutes. China did manage to find the basket, but the final score was 38-19, so Chinese Taipei will meet Australia for gold and China will play Hong Kong for bronze tomorrow.

In the six matches on Day Four of the IKF AOKC in Hong Kong, the favoured teams again prevailed easily on each occasion.

Against Indonesia Pool B leader Australia strolled to a comfortable win in the first game. Veteran Megan Marks, given the captain’s armband for the match, led the way with a game high seven goals. Every other player in Australia’s starting eight notched at least one, and for most of the game the scoreboard ticked over at a rate of around one goal per minute. Indonesia seldom threatened as the power and experience of Australia’s defence locked their attack out and offered up hardly any opportunities. Final score 36-4:

In the second game, Chinese Taipei continued in the same vein as yesterday, scoring with ease against Korea. A slight variant on the theme from the champion team’s previous game came out of the relationship between the two teams: relative korfball newcomer Korea has had strong technical assistance from Chinese Taipei via the sister institutions National Taiwan University of Education in Taipei and Seoul National University of Korea, which have worked extensively together over the past nine years on korfball development and are the respective centres of the sport in each country. Chinese Taipei star Ya-wen Li scored seven in just half a game, while Korea’s Sung Kwan Jeong has reason to be satisfied with his four goals against such high quality opposition. In the end Chinese Taipei won comfortably: 40-15.

China took longer to dominate Malaysia than was the case when they overwhelmed Macau yesterday, bringing a more measured less physical approach to this game. For most of the first half, scoring was relatively even and this shaped to be the day’s closest contest. In the second half, however, Malaysia’s energy levels sagged and China picked up its scoring tempo. China’s high quality female players scored 19 of the team’s goals, proving the difference between the two teams for a result of 29-11.

Next up, Hong Kong met Japan, and again the higher ranked team dominated with ease. Captain of the host team Kwok Kuen Ham found his scoring rhythm for a game-high five goals. As has been the case in many games, particularly where one team has gained the ascendance in the first half, a rash of substitutions occurred shortly after half time. These made little difference to the scoring momentum as coach Warman Cheng’s bench players contributed well. Although Japan managed to score occasionally, the result was an emphatic 36-10.

Back on court just three hours after victory over Korea, Chinese Taipei next took on New Zealand, whose coach Mark Garrett gave starts to a number of players who have seen little or no court time so far this tournament. Unfortunately, in the second minute, New Zealand’s Sarah Bateup fell badly, injuring her shoulder, and had to leave the game. After the disruption, the Chinese Taipei korfball machine resumed its regular goal scoring, albeit under more committed defensive pressure than some other opponents have offered. Chinese Taipei notched 16 before New Zealand found the korf, and at half-time the score was 18-1. New Zealand managed to score slightly better in the second half and by the final whistle the score was 38-5.

Also playing its second match in a few hours, Australia came back onto the court for the final pool game, taking on Macau. Another game where korfball’s spirit of friendship was evident, Australia spent a few days last week in a joint pre-tournament training camp with Macau, and the camaraderie between the players was obvious. That said, Australia’s players still brought their game faces and once the whistle blew, the amity went on hold. As in the earlier game, each of Australia’s starting eight scored. Ashlee Othen top scored this time with seven, more than the whole of the Macau team could manage, although Sie Ji Ong managed a buzzer beater right at the end, which was met by a huge cheer from the Australian bench. Final score: 25-6.

Tomorrow’s games are therefore set as follows: Korea v Indonesia, Japan v Macau, New Zealand v China and Hong Kong v Malaysia. Respective pool winners Chinese Taipei and Australia will rest tomorrow ahead of their semi finals, and by assuring their presence in the top four this week have each confirmed their qualification for next year’s World Championship in Belgium.