The Kolfspel is an age -old sport, but a World Cup has never been organized. Until now. The Club Togido (this is what this is founded) from Wormer has managed to drum players with eleven different nationalities to turn it into a world championship. “Everyone wants to become a world champion, so we have organized a World Cup,” laughs Secretary Mark Aberkrom.
The participants with a foreign passport often live in the area. For example, there is an American who lives in Wormer and came to drink a while ago in the pub where is played. The organizers asked him to participate and he turned out to be able to do it too. He was in his home country of ice hockey player, it turned out. And so they had another nationality.
The Russian Stanislav Zakratsky is also there. He plays today under a neutral flag. “Me and my wife lived in Wormer two years ago,” he explains. “It was Heritage Day and we read about this place in the newspaper. We went there, people were friendly and it turned out to be a very nice place. Now we live in Zaandam, but we are still coming here.”
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It is not very good, he says modestly. “But it is probably the only good thing about being a Russian immigrant: I can just participate in the World Cup.”
Such a feeling has Eelco van Raam – he has Australian roots – too: “This is something I like my bucket list You can stripes: I am an international athlete, haha. “