The World U23 Korfball Championships appears to have been a huge success for the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association, not only in terms of their historic march through to the final and subsequent silver medal, the first in their history, but in the organisation and running of the tournament.

Matches appear to have been televised and well covered from a TV perspective, albeit the failure and poor quality of the 'live' video transmissions meant the tournament could not be enjoyed by those outside of Taiwan. 

The extremely poor quality of the 'live' video streaming throughout this tournament will remain one of its major disappointments and clearly the Kaoshung World Games Committee have a hell of a lot of work today before they stage an event as big as the World Games.  As a result Korfball lost out on a valuable promotion opportunity and questions may well be asked as to how the IKF got itself into such an apparent mess over the rights of the video coverage of the tournament.

Whilst Chinese Taipei's success is good news on the pitch would appear good news for the sport one wonders how much that success is to do with their actual progress as it is to do with Belgium's decline although it is probably fair to say that winning this tournament was never part of the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association's plan and the silver medal position will represent a massive success for Chinese Taipei Korfball.

This group of young players had been carefully guided through what is a clear programme that is quite likely aimed at winning goal in the 2011 World Championships and you can rest assured you will see the same players featuring in that tournament.

Chinese Taipei will now be firmly focusing on retaining their Silver status at home once again in the World Games, with that work starting almost straight away, and on the evidence of this championships they have every chance of doing so.

For the Netherlands players it was the expected and customary celebration before they head back to the Dutch Korfball league for some real competition

The World Championships looks on the whole to have been a great success in terms of its presentation and organisation and Chinese Taipei will have plenty to celebrate on all front tonight.

Many of the established nations however, including England, will now need to think very seriously about the future and what they do now if they are to have any hope of achieving success in the years ahead.

The Netherlands were never really challenged as they comfortably retained their title, whilst Chinese Taipei took a big step towards establishing themselves as the world's number two and the Netherlands main rival.

For Belgian this championships may well prove a major wake up call and this is something that many have been predicting for some time.  It was not a matter of whether but simply when and although Belgium's collapse against the Dutch in the semi finals was somewhat made up for by their comfortable win over Russia in the play off the gap between Belgium and the Netherlands just turned into a gulf.

The fact that they are sat within not more than an hours drive of the centre of Dutch Korfball makes clear just how make progress far away Chinese Taipei have made and unless Belgium wake up and smell the coffee they may find the World Games in Taiwan next summer turning a bit like a scene in groundhog day, bearing in mind that this Taipei U23 side beat the Belgian seniors (albeit not full strength) at least year's Korfball challenge.

The Russians will likely be satisfied with re-enforcing their place in the World's top 4, but will be disappointed they did not make more of their chance to go all the way in the semis but they continue to improve and as they like Taipei appear to be working to a clear plan expect this team to feature in next summer's World Games, just a little stronger.

Catalonia will be greatly pleased to win 5th place and are another nation that has made great progress in recent years.
Having narrowly lost out by one goal against England in the pool they learned from that experience and things were very different in the re-match in the 5th/6th play off.

England went into this tournament with little or no chance of finishing in the top 4 and 6th place will be seen as a good result by many.  That said the loss to up and coming Catalonia was a disappointment and despite some of the praise reportedly coming from some within the KNKV it was once again the same old story, our finishing and our inability to score goals that ultimately let England down once again.

The England squad was boosted by the inclusion of two Dutch players, eligible to play for England, but that alone was not enough to make a difference.

It is an indication of just where we have reached when some seem happy that England have been able to provide Taipei with some competition in the first half, in the same way we used to when England played the Dutch

Coach Colin Boys will head straight in the preparation for the World Games next summer and with just months left he will under no illusions just how difficult a task the British squad will face in that competition.

Germany will no doubt be disappointed to finish 7th in this tournament and like England will need to do some serious thinking if it is regain the top 4 status it enjoyed for so long.  At times they looked like they would reach the semi finals and be the one team that might cause Taipei to slip up but their collapse in their clash with Russia put paid to any such thoughts.

The Czech Republic has certainly had its moments along the way in past years and was the only nation to win a silver medal in a major championships prior to today, having caught Belgium napping in the early stages a few years back.  The Czech's won the bronze medal at the recent World Championships at home in 2007 but the performances of their Junior sides, coupled with their performance this week suggest they are moving backwards rather than forwards.

At the bottom half of the tournament Australia had a disappointing week and struggled against the likes of Hong Kong and the same could be said of South Africa.

The performances of both Hong Kong and China highlighted the emergence of Asian Korfball and China looked to get better as the week went on, ending on an impressive 21 - 16 win over South Africa.

With the beginning's of a impressive looking University based structure and strong government support ultimately it may well be China then in years to come is the only nation able to challenge the Dutch, although such a process is likely to take in the region of 10 years.

So it seems that Korfball remains totally dominated by the Netherlands for the foreseeable future but at least the picture is beginning to change thanks to the Chinese Taipei Korfball Association and their progressive thinking