Jane represents Ireland at Euro tournament

Jane, 23, a past pupil of Friends’ School, Lisburn, now lives in Cardiff, where she was introduced to the sport as a student at university.

Korfball is a hybrid ball game sharing characteristics of both netball and basketball and is played in mixed gender teams, with a fixed ratio of females and males. To be eligible each Team must have 4 males and 4 female.

Korfball is not a well-known sport in Northern Ireland but it is played more commonly in Wales, Scotland and England. It is especially popular in Holland.

In 2012 Jane was given the opportunity to train with the Welsh development squad. This year with increasing experience and skills she was selected to play for the Irish International Team to play in the European Bowl Tournament. This Tournament is held every 2 years and is open to National selections of players from countries within Europe.

The Irish team travelled to compete in the IKF European Bowl – Eastern Region Tournament on October 18 and 19 in Papendrecht, Holland.

Ireland played a total of 4 matches over the 2 day Bowl. Jane played in every match scoring in her debut game against Greece. Winning 2 matches outright, narrowly losing to Wales in extra time and were beaten by Turkey who were the overall winners of the Eastern Bowl.

This put Ireland in third place, successfully securing a qualifying place for the European Finals, which will take place in Autumn 2014.