With a clear and deserved 20-10 victory over Colombia, Brazil has won the First IKF Pan American Championship, and has qualified for next year’s IKF World Korfball Championship in Belgium.

Following yesterdays golden goal victory against Colombia, Brazil was a light favorite for the title, but a close match was expected. The first 15 minutes Colombia was the better team, with a well-organized European style defense organized by coach Tilbert La Haye. Despite the considerable length disadvantage, Colombia daring took the lead with a goal by Stephanie Canizales. Brazil had difficulty keeping the score level in the first 15 minutes, due to the tight defense, but also avoided the Colombian women making the large number of goals that they made yesterday. However, after 20 minutes, leading 4-3, Brazil in three minutes increased the gap to 7-3 with goals by Wallace Cruz, Fernanda Cardoso, and Daniel Ferreira. The gap gave Colombia a strong blow, from which it never recovered in the remainder of the game. After the half-time break, Brazil cruised to 12-7, when Colombia suddenly made two goals and a short tense period occurred in which the Colombians had several opportunities to close the gap to 2. Andressa Silva however took away any further expectations of the Colombian by scoring 13-9 in the 39th minute. After that, the match was over and Brazil easily expanded the gap to finally win by 20-10. Michele Iatarola and David Ferreira lead the Brazilian scorelist with 5 each, and Juan Lerma topped the Colombia list with 4. Brazil’s women performed very well in defense, keeping the Colombian women to only 3 goals, while they scored 8 between them.

After the first day of competition, countries participating in the tournament settled their possibilities for the upcoming days:  Colombia and Brazil are the candidates to play the final after their good results of the first day and it appears that the Mexican team is going to be too weak at this moment to be a contender for the other two countries in the tournament.

After the withdrawal of Argentina, the Colombian team reinforced their aspirations to fight against Brazil for the place in the next IKF World Korfball Championship. A consistent victory of 14-23against the second team of Brazil, replacing Argentina after their withdrawal, is going to boost the aspirations of the Colombians against the host country. The game was close in the first 10 minutes, but after an impressive scoring performance of the Colombian girls the difference was bigger before the end of the first half and at the beginning of the second half the game was very well controlled. Great performance indeed of all the Colombian girls who showed great capacities to score goals and specially Virgina Caicedo who finally became the best scorer of the game with 5 goals.

In the other game of the day Brazil presented its credentials as a main candidate to be the first Latin American country in the IKF World Korfball Championships. The host team beat Mexico by 40-7 lead by Daniel Ferreira and Michelle Iatarola, each of them with 10 goals,  and could show in front of their crowd all their potential.

As the 2014 IKF Pan American Korfball Championship approaches, the competing teams are finalising their preparations for the continent’s inaugural international tournament, in Americana/Sao Paulo, Brazil, from 31 January to 2 February.

As is usual in international korfball, in addition to technical preparation, the teams have been working hard to raise the funding needed to participate in the event. Players representing host Brazil, and fellow South American international newcomer Colombia, have developed their passion for korfball and their skills in the game through many years of guidance provided by instructors under the IKF Development and Education Committee. They now have the opportunity to test themselves in their first experience of international competition.

Mexico, however, has taken a different path. After some years of self-taught korfball, motivated by the prospect of participating in the IKF Pan American Championship, physical education teacher Alfonso Espinal contacted the IKF to request technical support, therefore maximising the opportunity for the young Mexican players to make the most of their experience at the tournament.

Alfonso Espinal teaches at the high school academy for physical education in Escuela Superior Educación Física (ESEF) Cuautla, 150 kilometres from Mexico City.

“We started regular practice here in Cuautla two months ago, and decided that going to the championship was a good way to consolidate our learning process,” he says.

As a consequence, an IKF Level I course was run in Cuautla from 24 to 26 January, with a group of 35 ESEF students led through the course by DEC director Albert Vidanya and IKF instructor Dick Kalkman, who will advise coach Espinal in an intensive week of training and through the tournament.

Alfonso Espinal expects his team’s experience in Brazil will provide a great boost for the development of Mexican korfball.

“We want to keep progressing during the korfball championship, and bring the best knowledge back to Mexico, therefore maintaining the process of growth. Our main aim is to build up the federation, for which we need six states. While we already have foundations in Estado Morelos, Estado de Guerrero, Estado de México and Distrito Federal, we are also actively looking to establish korfball in two more states, and therefore formalise the statutes for the national organisation,” he said.