Korfball Beach Fiesta in Negombo later this year
Korfball Sri Lanka will stage its first ever international tournament from December 31, 2021 to January 2, 2022 at the Negombo beach. Named as ‘FSL Open World Beach Korfball Fiesta-Negombo Sri Lanka, the competition is set to feature participation by over 20 countries.
Korfball is a mixed gender sport, with similarities to netball and basketball. It is played by two teams of eight players with four females and four males in each team. The objective is to throw the ball through a bottomless basket that is mounted on a 3.5 m (11.5 feet) high pole in the international matches. For the kids it can be adjusted.
The sport is invented by the Dutch teacher Nico Broekhuysen in 1902 and is already being played over for 120 years around the world and over 70 countries. The International Korfball Federation was founded in 1933 with its headquarters in Netherlands. Korfball Sri Lanka (KSL) is an Associate Member of International Korfball Federation (IKF) since November 6, 2015 along with Morocco and Switzerland. Within five years according to the world rankings of the 2020, Sri Lanka was ranked 51-2016, 44-2017, 30-2018, 47-2019 and 43-2020 in the world. The IKF is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and is expecting to participate in the next Olympics.
This is a high intensity, non-contact and safe sport, suitable for any age category. It is a sport that could help develop physical and mental health of the children in Sri Lanka and a wonderful recreation activity for relieving high competitive education stress among the students. Korfball influences in reducing hypo kinetic diseases such as obesity and many more.
Since the sport’s introduction in 2013 the National Korfball Federation was formed in 2015 as ‘Korfball Sri Lanka’. The IKF accepted Korfball Sri Lanka as 68th affiliated member in the world and in 2016 Sri Lanka conducted schools and national championships.
Sri Lanka was represented in an international competition in 2016 at the Asian Korfball Championships held in Jaipur, India. The island nation conducted its first ever beach korfball championship in Negombo Beach in 2017, and participated in the Under-16 and 19 Korfball Championships in Taiwan.
In 2019, Pushpakumara Madurapperuma, the present Secretary General of KSL participated in a Level III Coaching Course in the Netherlands. He was chosen as an executive member of IKF Asia and also is a member of the Korfball Development Committee in Asia. Last year KSL in the hope of taking the game to outstations, appointed coordinators for each district and conducted training programmes at the University of Peradeniya and at the Sri Jayawardenapura in 2021.
Korfball is a unique mix gender sport in the world. The game was introduced to Sri Lanka in 2013 by a Dutch national Ms. Jose Van Nunspeet and remained on a low profile since inception in the island.