South Canterbury's Jaydon Phillips, left, and Samuel and Jesse Kempf are all in the national fistball team. Three Timaru fistballers have made the New Zealand team for the world championships in Switzerland in August - and it was a sport they discovered by chance. Brothers Samuel and Jesse Kempf, and Jaydon Phillips, all originally volleyballers, will represent their country at the championships, which is also a qualification event for the 2021 World Games in Birmingham, USA. Samuel has played fistball at national level before, having been the first of the three to discover the sport. Fistball is similar to volleyball, with two teams of five try to score points by knocking a ball over the net and past their opponents, with each team allowed three hits per possession.

Source: Stuff March 10, 2019 23:04 UTC