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IKF European Korfball Tour 2021 – update October

The IKF EXCO has decided to cancel the IKF European Korfball Tour Challenger(s) in January 2021. This decision has been taken following the current negative developments regarding the spread of the coronavirus in Europe. With the number of infections increasing and new restrictions imposed by national governments all over Europe, there is too much doubt to continue with the preparations for the EKT-Challengers.

The IKF would like to express its gratitude towards the Polish Korfball Association (PKA) for all the efforts over the last months to prepare the EKT-Challenger in Poland.

The IKF EXCO keeps the option open to hold the IKF EKT-Finals in February in The Netherlands. The developments of the corona pandemic will be monitored closely over the coming weeks and a final decision regarding the continuation of the EKT-Finals will be made ultimately the 1st of December.

Since the EKT-Challengers are cancelled, the two teams that would qualify through these events now need to be appointed. The IKF Competition Committee will discuss this situation in the coming weeks and will decide upon the criteria to appoint the two remaining teams.

IKF European Korfball Tour 2021 – update and draw

Update IKF European Korfball Tour 2021

The preparations for the experimental IKF European Korfball Tour (EKT) 2021, planned to take place in January and February, are moving forward. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic uncertainties will remain for the next months, but at this moment the IKF has good hope that the event can take place as scheduled. A next official evaluation of the situation is scheduled for the middle of October.

 

EKT-Challengers:

At this moment the host of one of the two EKT-Challengers is confirmed. An agreement has been made with the Polish Korfball Association (PKA) to organise one of the EKT-Challengers, to be held from 7-9 January 2021 in Kiełczowie (Wroclaw area).

A second host for the EKT-Challenger has not yet been found. Currently, there is one final option the IKF is investigating. Ultimately in the second week of October, it will become clear if there will be a second host for the EKT-Challengers or not.

In the case that no second host is found, the IKF European Korfball Tour will continue with the organisation of one EKT-Challenger only. In this scenario the match schedule of the tournament will be adjusted in line with the final number of participants. The two best teams of the EKT-Challenger in Poland will then qualify for the EKT-Finals in The Netherlands.

 

EKT-Finals:

The six teams that are directly qualified for the EKT-Finals from 11-13 February 2021 all have confirmed their participation. The other two teams that will complete the tournament will qualify through the EKT-Challenger(s).

As announced earlier the EKT-Finals has no group stage and proceeds directly to the elimination stage with the quarter finals on Thursday, the semi-finals on Friday and the finals on Saturday. The teams that are eliminated in the quarter finals will play for the positions 5-8 in a parallel elimination format.

The match-up of the quarter final matches are decided upon by an open draw. Hence, any type of seeding would require to explicitly rank countries and teams without any precedent.

Since the host country of the tournament has indicated that the outcome of the draw of the EKT-Finals could affect the way of hosting the tournament, with one or two playing locations in The Netherlands, the draw has already been executed. This gives the host country the time to properly prepare the tournament. As can be seen, the two Challenger positions have been part of the draw. After finalising the EKT-Challenger(s) it will be decided where both teams end up in the match schedule, by conducting a second draw.

Underneath you find the draw of the European Korfball Tour Finals. More detailed information will follow in a later stage.

 

Day 1
Thursday 11-02-2021
A KC Floriant (BEL) PKC/Vertom (NED)
B NC Benfica (POR) Challenger
C KV Adler Rauxel e.V. (GER) Boeckenberg KC (BEL)
D Challenger TOP Sassenheim (NED)
Day 2
Friday 12-02-2021
E loser A loser B
F winner A winner B
G loser C loser D
H winner C  winner D
Day 3 
Saturday 13-02-2021
loser E loser G
winner E winner G
loser F loser H
winner F winner H

A new update about the European Korfball Tour is planned for the end of October or beginning of November, after the official evaluation moment that has been scheduled.