Third straight BENE-League title for Bocholt after all-Belgian final
Third straight BENE-League title for Bocholt after all-Belgian final
The joined competition with the best teams from Belgium and Netherlands has been won by a Belgian team - once again.
Achilles Bocholt crowned themselves champions of the BENE-League for the third straight season, becoming the second club to lift the trophy three times in a row since Dutch side HV Volendam achieved the feat between 2010 and ’12.
Bocholt have won the competition a record four times now. Since its introduction in 2008, Belgian have won seven titles, Netherlands five.
In this year’s final Bocholt was put to the test by another Belgian side, HC Visé BM. After Visé led 13:12 at half-time, the defending champions came out on top again and won the final 30:27.
A substantial contribution to Hasselt’s victory came from centre back Bartosz Kedziora, who netted five times in the final. It was a special occasion for Kedziora, Player of the Year in Belgium in 2015/16, as he will join final opponents Visé after the summer break.
In the semi-finals at the BENE-League Final4 weekend in Antwerpen, Bocholt and Visé had beaten Dutch sides Green Park Aalsmeer and OCI-Lions respectively, while Lions won the subsequent third-place match 28:22.
