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Countdown to TWG 2025: Korfball and Beach Korfball Draws

With less than 50 days to go until the opening of The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China, anticipation is building for the 12th edition of the games. This evening, we hosted the live draws to determine the group stage matchups for both the Korfball and the debuting Beach Korfball competitions. 

Watch the Live Draws

Korfball Draw – Thursday 19 June 2025 20:00 CEST

Beach Korfball Draw – Thursday 19 June 20:30 CEST

The live draws determine the groupings for both competitions.

Live Draw Results

Korfball – Group Stage Draw:
    • Group A: Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, Portugal, and China
    • Group B: Belgium, Germany, Czechia, and Suriname
Beach Korfball – Group Stage Draw: 
    • Group A: Poland, Netherlands, Belgium, and Australia 
    • Group B: Chinese Taipei, Hungary, United States, and China 

What are The World Games?

The World Games is a multi-sport event held every four years, showcasing sports and disciplines not currently featured in the Olympic Games. Organised by the International World Games Association (IWGA) with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the event brings together over 4,000 elite athletes from 117 countries, competing across 34 sports and 60 disciplines. The 12th edition of The World Games will take place from 7th to 17th August 2025 in Chengdu, China, across 28 world-class venues.

Korfball at The World Games 2025

The korfball competition will take place from 8th to 12th August at the Longquan High School Gymnasium.

Eight teams from four continents, who earned their places through the IKF World Korfball Championship 2023, will compete: Suriname, Portugal, Czechia, Germany, Chinese Taipei, Belgium, The Netherlands, and hosts China.

Beach Korfball Makes Its Debut

For the first time in World Games history, Beach Korfball will be featured as an official discipline. The beach competition will take place from 15th to 17th August at Xinglong Lake and promises fast-paced and high-energy action in a superb beach arena.

The eight qualified teams are: Australia, United States, Belgium, Hungary, The Netherlands, Chinese Taipei, Poland and hosts China.

This inclusion marks a major milestone for Beach Korfball, reflecting its rapid growth and global appeal.

 

Stay tuned to our social networks and follow #TWG2025 #WeAreTheWorldGames #RoadToChengdu for full coverage, behind-the-scenes content, and updates as we count down to Chengdu!

Road to Chengdu begins! IKF World Beach Korfball Championship 2024: Groups Draw completed!

The group stage is set for the IKF World Beach Korfball Championship 2024 following the Group Draw that took place this evening (Monday, April 15, 2024) broadcasted on YouTube.com/ikfchannel.

Eighteen teams were drawn into three groups, with some interesting matchups emerging based on the latest beach world rankings. 

The Korfball Association of Thailand will host the World Korfball Beach Championships from 26 to 28 April 2024 in Pattaya City, which is also a qualifier event for The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.

Group A features the current world number one ranked team, Poland, who will face off against Portugal (ranked 6th), India (7th), Australia (10th), Scotland (19th) and Czechia (23rd). 

Group B is headlined by second-ranked Belgium, who will take on Hungary (ranked 5th), Hong Kong China (8th), Japan (18th), Singapore (20th) and China (23rd).  

Finally, Group C includes USA (ranked 3rd), the Netherlands (4th), Chinese Taipei (9th), Thailand (12th), Malaysia (21st) and Macau China (ranked 23rd). 

Pattaya was a very successful host of a Beach World Cup in 2022, and this allows the local federation to build on this success as a benchmark for international beach korfball competitions.

Exciting times ahead for Beach Korfball 

Further, following the inclusion of korfball in the program of the next edition of The World Games in Chengdu (CHN), the IKF announced that the international beach korfball calendar will be expanded substantially. In 2024, in addition to the World Beach Korfball Championships, two World Cups will be scheduled, one in Europe, likely in August, and a second one in Asia, likely in December. This aligns with the vision of the IKF Council to create a year-round global calendar for beach korfball events.

 

Further, the IKF announced the qualification regulations for the beach korfball tournament at TWG 2025. The champion of the WBKC will directly qualify for TWG, and TWG host China will have the opportunity to directly qualify at the WBKC, provided they finish in the top-10 of the event. The further 6 or 7 spots (a total of 8 countries/teams can take part in TWG Beach Korfball tournament) will be determined on the newly launched IKF World Beach Korfball Ranking, ensuring both global representation across at least four continents and sufficient competitiveness by ensuring all participants are within the top-12 of the World Ranking as per 31 December 2023.

IKF Beach Korfball World Ranking

IKF Beach Korfball Ranking Criterita, click here.

TWG 2025 Qualification Criteria Beach Korfball, click here.

Where to follow

All fans around the world will be able to watch and follow this tournament live on youtube.com/ikfchannel and on www.worldkorfball.sport (with live results and live streams, statistics, scorers, play-by-play …), as well as on social media on @IKFAsia and @BeachKorfball profiles and the hashtag #WBKC2024, #beachkorfball and #korfball, with the best image galleries, clips and highlights.

IKF Beach Korfbal profiles:

► instagram.com/beachkorfball
► facebook.com/beachkorfball
► twitter.com/beachkorfball
► tiktok.com/@beachkorfball

IKF Asia profiles:

► facebook.com/IKFasia
► instagram.com/IKFasia
► twitter.com/AsiaIKF

You can find all this content and much more visiting the following official IKF profiles (see below):

► instagram.com/korfball_org
► facebook.com/korfball.org
► twitter.com/korfball
► tiktok.com/@korfball.sport