Big shift in ranking E-mail

Thursday, 03 November 2011 11:40

Although the final games of the world championship still have to be played, with the final games known it is possible to compare the rough end result with previous tournament, like last year's European Championships. With seven of the eight top ranked countries in China being from Europe, this is a fair comparison that shows some big shifts.

In this 2011 World Championship korfball in China, the final matches will be like this, providing that Taiwan and Catalunya lose from The Netherlands and Belgium:

  • for first place: Belgium and The Netherlands
  • for third place: Catalunya and Taiwan
  • for fifth place: England and Russia
  • for seventh place: Czech Republic and Portugal
  • for nineth place: Germany and Poland

First we look at the results of the 2007 World Championships in Prague, Czech Republic. There the host country has its finest hour, claiming bronze:

  1. The Netherlands
  2. Belgium
  3. Czech Republic
  4. Portugal
  5. Taiwan
  6. Russia
  7. England
  8. Australia
  9. Catalunya
  10. Hungary
  11. Germany
  12. India
  13. USA
  14. Poland
  15. South Africa
  16. China

Looking at all participants, China shows considerable progress, going from being last (losing by a golden goal against South Africa), as well as Poland, South Africa has no progress at all and the Americas are missing completely now.

Germany is doing slightly better now compared to four years ago. The numbers three and four of four years ago take a dive of four places, Taiwan is progressing as expected and Catalunya is up five or six places. Russia is stable and England is slowly on the rise.

Now comparing with just a year ago is more interesting. This is the final result of the European Championships 2010 in The Netherlands:

  1. The Netherlands
  2. Belgium
  3. Czech Republic
  4. Germany
  5. Catalunya
  6. England
  7. Portugal
  8. Russia
  9. Poland

The other seven countries are omitted as they are irrelevant for the comparison. This shows that the Czechs are consistant in claiming a 'best of the rest' result in Europe, Germany has made considerable progress, as well as Catalunya, England is stable and both Portugal and Russia are down.

This year, Catalunya is playing for third place, where the Czechs play for seventh place and Germany is not even in the top eight. This is a clear change compared to last year. Portugal's decline is already visible in last year's results. England is not progressing in the overall result, seeing Catalunya overtaking them, but they pass Czech Republic.

Looking at the quarter final groups, pool F has proven to be the stronger overall pool, having Belgium, England, Russia and Taiwan. If this is the reason for Catalunya playing for third place is guesswork, but an intriguing question nonetheless. Their result in the game for third place will show their level.