Chinese Taipei v Russia

There was little to separate the Korfball world's fastest developing nations in this semi clash and Chinese Taipei set the pace from the opening minutes as a Huang Ling Fan penalty took them into an early but Sergey Usachev goal from distance by way of quick reply made clear this was not going to be the walkover that Taipei had managed in many of their meeting with Korfball B nations in this tournament.

Chinese Taipei led throughout by Russia were never more than a goal behind them and Taipei went into the half time break with a narrow 11 - 10 lead.  With Russia able to match Taipei's attacking power this was always going to be one of their toughest matches and as the 2nd period began Russia drew even at 11 - 11 with a goal from mid range from Olga Dudina.

Chinese Taipei hit back with three goals in two minutes with Yun Shiou Yun, Chu Shu Ping, and Wu Chun Hsien all finding their shooting range to take the score to 14 - 11.

Russia immediately called a time out and mid range goals from Sergey Nizovskiy and Denis DosuGov brought the Russians back to within 1 goal at 14 - 13, but Taipei's momentum pushed them ahead as mid range goal from Yeh Ming Te , another close range goals from Wu too Taipei's lead to 16 - 13.

Two goals from the penalty spot from Nizovskiy and Dosugov brought Russia back in contention at 16 - 15 with 6 minutes remaining but Chu Shu Ping scored from close range to extend Taipei's lead to 17 - 15.

With the game almost won Taipei used a time out with just a minute to go and in the dying seconds Sergey Usachev gave Russia hope as his long range goal brought them to within one goal at 17 - 16.

With just seconds remaining Chinese Taipei had the chance to seal a historic victory and that victory was sealed as
Huang Ling Fan scored from the sport to win the game 18 - 16.

So as predicted Taipei march to a major championships final for the first time in their history although whether they will be able to compete with the might of the Netherlands is doubtful at this stage.

With Belgian now mortally wounded Russia will have their eye on the bronze with the two now meeting in the 3rd/4th play off.

Wu Chien Hsu was Taipei's leading scorer with 5 goals while Alexander Vyunnik scored 5 for Russia.


The Netherlands v Belgium

Belgian went into a 2 - 1 lead in their semi final clash with the Netherlands 7th minute but that was as good as it was going to get for the Belgian side as the superior Dutch technical skills saw them pull away to a 13 - 6 lead at half time.

With 38 minutes gone and Belgium struggling the Netherlands simply moved up a gear Scoring 11 consecutive goals in the last 20 minutes with Belgium unable to find the basket.

Rick Voorneveld had the last say of the game with a goal from the penalty spot to take the final score to 27 - 8.

This was a crushing defeat for the Belgian's who are now all but relegated to a B status Korfball nation in terms of their international standing.

The Belgians now face a tough battle with Russia in the 3rd/4th play off to stay in with a chance of securing some sort of medal.

The Netherlands will now meet Chinese Taipei in the final but on the evidence of this performance the hosts will simply have to make do with silver and leave any thoughts of Gold to next time round.

Suzanne Struik was the leading goal scorer for the Netherlands with 8 goals while Nick Janssens was Belgium's leading scorer with 4.