2007 Korfball World Championship Pools are Drawn
The International Korfball Federation (IKF) has published
the pools and schedule for its 2007 World Championships, to
be held in Brno, Czech Republic. Sixteen teams will participate
and these have been placed into 4 pools of 4 based on the
IKF Rankings at 31 December 2006 with the extra provision
that no pool may contain teams from more than 3 continents.
Matches will take place in two halls and will be in three
phases, with games played from 1 to 10 November. Teams would
be expected to arrive no later than 30 October. 31 October
will be a training/acclimatisation day.
The 16 teams will be divided into four pools of four teams
for the 1st phase of the World Championships. Who plays who?
Pool A: Netherlands, Portugal, Catalonia, Hong Kong
China
Pool A will see a traditional Iberian clash between Portugal
and Catalonia. Hong Kong China is a newcomer to the World
Championships, while the reigning world champions from Netherlands
haven’t lost a single game in the World Championships
since 1991.
Pool B: Belgium, Australia, South Africa, Poland
The route to Brno through the capitals of the Pool B countries
is almost of the same length as the equator, which makes the
Pool B a really global pool. Poland is building a brand new
team so will probably lack experience in a top international
event. Belgium is the clear favourite in this pool, but the
non- European teams from Australia and South Africa can always
surprise the ‘old’ countries.
Pool C: Czech Republic, England, Hungary, India
National or club teams of Czech Republic, Hungary and England
meet quite often, while India has taken part in only one international
event since the Centennial championships in 2003. This was
naturally the Asia-Oceania Championships, a qualification
tournament for WC07. India surprised the world with a great
improvement of the players' skills and the tactics. England
will be participating under that country’s banner for
the first time as all previous participation from The UK has
been by a Great Britain team. Although the hosting country,
as currently the third world ranked country, could be called
the favourites of Pool C, the other teams should not be written
off, especially England who, under the Great Britain banner,
were bronze medallists in two previous championships.
Pool D: Chinese Taipei, Germany, Russia, USA
In pool D, the USA team, which has missed the last three championships,
will challenge fairly experienced opponents. For Russia this
is their first ever chance to show to the world the high qualities
which are already well known in Europe. Traditional participants
of the World Championships, Germany and Chinese Taipei, will
therefore face a new strong force in this pool.
After the initial pool stage, there will be quarter-final
pools, followed by semi-finals and finals, and also play-offs
for all the lower placings.
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