Belgium (Blankenberge) host of the IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Europe) 2018

The IKF is happy to announce that the Royal Belgian Korfball Federation (KBKB) will host the IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Europe) 2018. The event will take place on the weekend of the 11^th and 12^th August 2018 and will be held in Blankenberge, Belgium. The best ranked European team will become European Beach Korfball Champion 2018.

With the introduction of World Cups, the IKF invests in the global development of beach korfball. Every continental organisation has the opportunity to organise a World Cup in 2018 and every country from all over the world is able to participate in each of the events. This can lead to at most 5 World Cups:

• IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Europe)
• IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Asia)
• IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Oceania)
• IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Africa)
• IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Americas)

The bid of Belgium to organise the IKF Beach Korfball World Cup (Europe) 2018 surpassed the competitive bid of the Turkish Korfball Federation (TDSF). Decisive in this process was the overall picture by the KBKB, presenting the event in a wider “Korfball Experience” approach to promote (beach) korfball in Flanders. This includes a side event for youth teams and recreational teams during the Championship weekend and a tournament for schools at the end of June. In Blankenberge, there is two kilometres of beach available, so having enough playing space for all beach korfball activities is not an issue!

Next summer it will be 15 years since two small clubs outside Antwerp started playing beach korfball. Since then beach korfball has grown significantly. In 2010, the Belgian Federation started a taskforce to organise a beach korfball tour across Flanders, which has been converted into an official committee within the Federation. To date, the highlight is the year of 2015 with more than 1200 participants in the korfball tour. This has left no doubt that the 2018 event will create a special 15^th anniversary!