British Student team finish 7th in University World Cup
The Great Britain student korfball team have finished 7th
in this year’s University World Cup, held in Rotterdam
in the Netherlands from June 24th-25th, after defeating Hungary
in a playoff to avoid last place.
The team, selected from the best university players in the
country, were initially placed in a pool with the national
student selections from Belgium, Chinese Taipei and Hungary,
with holders Russia and favourites the Netherlands in the
opposite pool along with Germany and Catalonia.
The British team got off to a strong start, defeating Hungary
5-3, but then lost their next two matches heavily against
strong opposition, 12-6 against Belgium and 16-9 against Chinese
Taipei. This put Britain into a series of playoffs for 5th-8th
place, and they unfortunately lost the first playoff match
12-8 to 2005 runners-up Catalonia, before beating Hungary
for a second time, this time by the greater margin of 9 goals
to 4. Despite the low position, several other teams commented
on the strong play by the British team.
Despite topping the opposite pool, the Netherlands slipped
up in their semi-final against Chinese Taipei when a decision
to rest several players backfired and they went down 10-6.
Russia, whose team mostly also play for the full national
side, then went on to retain their title, winning a desperately
close final against the Asian team 12-11.
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