Around Eastern the unofficial world championships for players under 19 years of age (the U19 JWC) will be held, once again in Leek. The three clubs in the municipality combine their forces to make this tournament a success, just as last year. Two main sponsors recently signed the contracts with the ‘Stichting Korfbalsupport Leek’, these are ‘MW Bedrijfskleding’ and ‘Univé Noord-Nederland’. 

The strongest junior teams in the world will compete at the U19 JWC Korfball. More than 100 volunteers are necessary to make the tournament a success. The event will start on Good Friday 2011. The opening ceremony will take place on Thursday evening before the event starts in the ‘Topsporthal’ in Leek. It is expected that at least three to four thousand supporters will come to see the korfball spectacle.

Last week the draw took place for the 12 participating countries, supervised by KNKV-representative Jacob Jonker. The draw was conducted by Martijn Buitenhuis who acted on behalf of the main sponsors ‘MW Bedrijfskleding’ and ‘Univé’.

Buitenhuis decided with the draw that defending champion The Netherlands does not play against the feared team of Chinese Taipeh in the first round. In their group the Asians will have to defeat Belgium, also one of the favourites. The expectation is that The Netherland will compete with Belgium and Chinese Taipeh for the title. Other teams are for instance Russia, Slovakia, England, Catalonia, Germany, Poland and Hungary. For more information go to the website of the U19 JWC: www.u19jwc.com.

On the picture you see Martijn Buitenhuis of ‘MW Bedrijfskleding’ and Jacob Jonker representative of the KNKV, in the front row. Behind them are the president of the 7 tournament groups of the organizing clubs, OWK(Oostwold), Rodenburg(Leek/Tolbert) and Sparta(Zevenhuizen).