Ms Bateup left to represent New Zealand at the World Korfball Championship in South Africa, last week. Go team NZ! 🇳🇿 🏆

Ms Bateup has left for four weeks to compete in the World Korfball Championships held in Durban, South Africa. This is the first time NZ Korfball has qualified for the World Championships. They qualified last year at Asia Oceania Korfball Champs held in Japan in 2018. 

The team is just back from a build up and preparation tournament, in China, held in June - ZZU cup ( Zhengzhou University) a Eurasian Korfball competition. They had lots of small wins and learning experiences along the way. Miss Bateup feels they've made big strides as a team in the last last year.

Their matches from the China tournament:Match 1 vs China, host country and world ranked #4 we lost 20 -12Match 2 vs Chinese Taipei world #2 we lost 37-15Match 3 vs Thailand we won 31-8Match 4 Cross over pool play vs India we won 20 -15 - this is the first time we've beaten India on a senior level.
Match 5 Played off for 5th and 6th vs Hong Kong, it was an intense game which finished with a draw. This meaning they went into golden goal to get a winner, but they came away with the win. 23 -22. They lost to Hong Kong last year.

The World Championship starts on August the 1st against the world #1 Netherlands Day two they play Czech Republic Day three they the have last pool play against Catalonia
Then into play offs.

You can view the draw here https://korfball.sport/event/ikf-world-korfball-championship-2/#tab-id-2 

LIVESTREAM LINKS - POOL GAMES

Game 1 - 1st Aug - NZ v NED
9pm NZST
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzSSPtTDDA0

Game 2 - 2nd Aug - NZ v CZE
10pm NZST
https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Game 3 - 3rd Aug - NZ v CAT
10pm NZST
https://www.youtube.com/watch…

Sarah - "I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my friends, family and students in my senior classes for supporting me in training, without you guys I wouldn't be in the position I am, I'm truly grateful. So excited!"

We're exceptionally proud of Sarah and what she has achieved and wish her and the team all the best at the Championship. We're just as excited as she is!