Belgium v Russia

The big question surrounding the 3rd/4th play off would be how Belgium would respond to their 27 - 8 thrashing by the Netherlands in the semi finals and whether Russia might snatch a bronze and send the Belgians' home without any sort of medal whatsoever.

Nick Janssens provided an early answer to that question as he took Belgium into a 1 - 0 lead in the opening seconds from mid range, but Sergey Nizovskiy was quick to reply from long range to bring the score even.

Belgium then picked up the pace as they scored 4 goals in 4 minutes to take the score to 5 - 1 after just 6 minutes causing Russia to use their first time out early in the game.

Minutes later Jesse de Bramaeker extended the Belgium lead to 6 - 1 from mid range and as Belgium started to look in control, 3 more goals from Janssens and another from De Bremaeker extended the Belgian lead to 11 - 3.

With any hopes of a bronze medal fast slipping away,  Russia used their 2nd time out in the 22nd minute and minute later their frustration was becoming clear as Julia Belskaya was shown a yellow card by referee Paul Jeanes.

Two more goals from mid range from Jeffrey Campers and De Bremaeker took the score to 13 - 3, proving the signal for changes to the Russian line up as Sergey Usachev was replaced by Alexander Artamonov and Denis Dosugov was replaced by Dmitry Kazachov.

Nick Janssens added his 6th goal of the game from long range to take Belgium into the half time break with a commanding lead of 14 - 4 and the bronze medal firmly in their grasp.

Things were not going to get any better in the 2nd half for the struggling Russian side as 2 more goals from Jesse de Bremaeker
took the Belgian to 16 - 4 as Annick Dekeyser was replaced by Sari Janssens.

Sergey Nizovskiy pulled one back from the penalty spot but the 2nd half was all Belgium as the Russians simply found themselves outclassed.

With 10 minutes to go substitute Sari Janssens took the lead to 24 - 10 with a running in shot goal and with the game over Belgium was able to give some time to those players who had not featured much in the action during the week.

Jarrett de Vriendt had the last say of the game from the free pass line to take the final score to 26 - 10.

Nick Janssens and Jesse de Bremaeker were Belgium's leading scorers each with 8 while Sergey Nizovskiy scored 6 for Russia

This will likely be a disappointing result for the Russian's who had hoped to establish themselves firmly up amongst the top 4 nations but facing an angry and highly motivated Belgian side with a lot to prove this game was always going to be a tough one.

Whether Belgium celebrated their first bronze medal in this tournament is not known and the big question now is where Belgian Korfball heads from here.

Their close proximity to the Netherlands has always given them a tremendous advantage over many nations but the lack of growth in the Belgian game, with the game focused around Antwerp, has left them with a far smaller pool of players to choose from their Dutch neighbours.

What appeared to let the Belgians down in this tournament was their levels of technical skills in respect of their finishing in particular and unless they want to be going home with more bronze medals in the future that is now something they will need to address.

For a time in recent years Belgian were winning some of the inter land matches against the Netherlands at Under 19 level and this was in no doubt largely due to the quality of young players being produced by the Belgian Tenovis Talent Development programme run by Rudy Ramaekers and Patrick Bosschaert.  It would seem however that this is a resource that Belgian Korfball has failed to take advantage of and as a result that programme has all but come to an end.

With Chinese Taipei getting better and better as each day passes and the likes of China now appearing on the distant horizon Belgium will need to do some serious thinking if it is to ever have a chance of reliving the glory that World Championships title in 1991.

For those Belgians who might be looking to forget the disappointment of this week highlights of that historic Belgian victory can be found at here Part 1 and Part 2