Title holders Qatar edged past South Korea 38-23 in the 17th Asian Handball Championship being held at Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town.
With this win, Qatar top Group ‘A’ – which includes Japan, Oman and Syria – with12 points.
Both teams started last night’s game evenly. Qatar quickly took the lead through Borja Fernandez, only for South Korea’s Jinki Hong to equalise one minute later.
The game remained close, with both teams scoring at regular intervals. However, Fernandez gave Qatar their first two-goal lead in the fifth minute.
Qatar’s coach Valero Rivera then requested the first time out of the game to try and adjust his team’s tactics to the gameplay.
The match remained tight with no obvious dominance by either side. While Qatar relied on their physical supremacy, South Korea depended more on agility and speed.
South Korea took the lead two minutes later with the first penalty of the game, which Ciyoel Yoon converted. They went on to score three more penalties out of a total of five attempts in the first half.
The Qataris, dominating the physical aspect of the game, managed to widen the gap leading the first half 19-13.
The second half witnessed the introduction of goalkeeper Stojanovis Goran, who came on for Qatar’s Saric Danijel. He went on to produce a brilliant performance, including two penalty saves.
Qatar kicked off the second half attacking vigorously, stretching their lead to 29-18 as South Korea failed to contain the resurrection of the Qatari offensive line.
The Koreans tried to get back into the game through a penalty which Dongcheol Kim converted, as they went on to close the gap to 30-21.
In spite of South Korea’s attempts, Qatar refused to let go of their hang on the game. They managed to end the match 38-23 through goals from Bagaric Marko, Velic Deni, Sami Yassine and Markovic Zarko, each double striking.
The first game of the group saw Syria going down to Japan – their fourth consecutive loss of the championship.
Syria’s first goal came as late as the ninth minute while Japan were leading 4-0. Japan, relying on fast-breaks, took advantage of Syria’s bad positioning and leaked defence to end the first half 11-6.
Syria managed to raise their game in the second half, but the Japanese maintained a 10-goal lead throughout most of the second half, wrapping-up the game 24-15.
Yesterday’s result sees Qatar sit on top of the table with eight points from four games with a goal difference of +60.
Japan are in second place with six points from four games and a goal difference of +6.
South Korea’s defeat means they remain in third place with four points and a goal difference of -2 while Oman ended their games sitting in fourth place with two points and a goal difference of -17.
Sryia are at the bottom of the table as they lost all their matches and hold a goal difference of -56.
Qatar, as world runner-ups, will represent Asia at the World Championship in France, along with the other semi-finalists of the tournament – Bahrain, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
One spot remains to be claimed for Asia’s teams at the World Championship. The main round, which kicks off today, will decide the fifth team.
In today’s main round, Syria will play China at 3pm while South Korea will face UAE at 5pm at Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town.
The last game of the night will see Iran face Oman at 7pm at the same venue.
The tournament, hosted by Bahrain for the second consecutive time, also serves as a qualifier to the World Championships in France next January.