Korfball
thon sprint was to raise awareness of their sport. Although the sport has been played in England for over sixty years, Synott spoke about the struggles Korfball is facing in trying to attract more players to the sport. “Korfball is a minority sport, I’ve been playing it all my life and I love the sport but I find it a little disappointing but I guess a little understandable. Generally you are only covering the high level sports such as football and rugby.” I think there is definitely scope [for growth] with the way the internet is going and the freedom of information you get with the minority sports, they are crying out to give you that information. Korfball is a very well organised sport for its size so we really would
Nerve looks at the small sport with big potential
On the same day that Patrick Musyoki of Kenya broke the marathon world record in Berlin, a group of 17 athletes were doing exactly the same thing to raise the profile of their small sport. Nerve’s Dan Welling looks into the under covered world of Korfball. Almost nobody in England has ever heard of Korfball but it turns out that the English team are one of the best in the world coming in seventh place out of 16 at the last World Championships. Star player Hannah Lorrimer explained more of the details of Korfball. “Korfball is a mixed team sport with similarities to both netball and basketball. The korf (or basket) is 3.5m high with no back board and the post is set in from the back line in each half to allow play all around the court. You cannot move with the ball and so it relies on all players to work together to create goal scoring opportunities. Each player is required to attack and defend, as once two goals are scored the ends swap over so attack becomes defence and defence becomes attack.” “I started playing in my second year at Nottingham Trent University as a friend of my sister was coaching the team at that time. Once I started playing I was hooked, and quickly became involved in the British Student Squad. After uni, I continued playing at Nottingham Korfball club and slowly moved up the ranks.” Because the of the public’s lack of knowledge about Korfball, the team individually funds trips to competitions with costs for individual players reaching £1500 in some cases. With the world championships in China on the horizon – where the squad are hoping for a medal - Dave Synott came up with the idea of the marathon sprint in the hope of raising
some money for the team. “For me it was picking out something that really stood out. It was a great concept as well as a group of people coming together to achieve something which actually is very difficult to do. The hardest thing was getting the players to really put the effort in because it’s not really suited to how our sport is played – sprinting in straight lines – so getting them to do the training was a big ask but they were absolutely incredible, they really went for it and did a fantastic job.”
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I’ve been playing all my life so it’s disappointing it doesnt attract more players.
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The event took place on the 25th September in Kent as England player Joe Bedford explained. “We ended up doing 28 individual 100m sprints in a relay style with a three and a half minute rest in between each one. To break the record we had to average 17 seconds for each individual sprint.” And they did just that as the squad managed to run the 26.2 mile distance in a staggering 1 hour, 45 minutes and 28 seconds with an
average time of 14.93 seconds per 100m, 18 seconds faster than the current world record set by Musyoki on the same day. But Lorrimer admitted it took a huge amount of effort. “It was a lot harder than I personally thought it would be. In theory three and half minutes rest between each sprint seems quite a lot, but when it came to it, it’s not very long. The first 6 or 7 sprints were the hardest, and I think a couple of us were wondering how on earth we were going to manage to do 28! But then strangely, it seemed to become easier the more we did, until the last 2 or 3 when the legs started to give up. It was something that was really enjoyable and hard work to do...but also something I would never want to do again.”
The squad smile for the camera after beating the record (above) as Joe Bedford, Steph Allen (right) and Hannah Lorrimer (below) take part in the charity marathon relay.
Bedford was the quickest player overall with an average split time of 12.81 seconds and spoke of the competiveness within the camp. “I’m pretty chuffed to be honest. Hannah is really fast so it was going to be a challenge trying to keep up with her but I do a lot of fitness training outside Korfball as well I’m just pleased the hard work is paying off.” Although the event probably helped the team’s overall fitness and raised some money for the trip to China, both players and organisers agreed that the real aim of the maraWords by Dan Welling. Design by Toby Gray
love to get some coverage and coverage is really what we need the most.” A few media commentators derided the event as nothing more but a PR stunt which was disrespectful to marathon runners having 17 people runners complete a distance meant for a solitary man or woman. Lorrimer though was quick to praise athletes like Paula Radcliffe. I don’t see how it can be disrespectful to individual marathon runners as it makes you realise what incredible athletes they are. It puts into perspective what an amazing feat the top runners are achieving by running that fast for that long! On TV it doesn’t look like they are moving that fast... in reality they are running each 100m in 17s or less! I think us doing our marathon relay showed just how fast that actually is!
Because of their sport’s low profile, athletes like Lorrimer and Bedford will not get to participate in the greatest show on Earth – the 2012 Olympics, but in a sport where playing is almost voluntary in England, Bedford admits he is used to playing without the spotlight. “It’s unfortunate but after playing the sport for so many years you just come to realise it’s not got the publicity of other sports. You just have to accept that and enjoy it for what it is.” Enjoyment is what keeps players like Bedford and Lorrimer playing and maybe also hope that one day, English Korfball reaches the same kind of popularity levels as in Holland and Belgium where hundreds of people turn out each week to watch league games.