Saudi upset Korea in Asian handball

TDT | Manama                                                

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Saudi Arabia stunned defending champions South Korea to book their tickets to the semi-finals alongside Kuwait from Group A in the 17th Asian Men’s Junior Handball Championship, which is being hosted by Bahrain at the Khalifa Sports City arena in Isa Town.

The Saudis edged past their East Asian opponents 32-28 to claim the all-important victory that put them through, while Kuwait defeated Iran 25-20 to also advance past the competition’s preliminary round. Following those results, the Kuwaitis sealed first place on their division table with five points and are in the final four as Group A winners, while Saudi finished in second place with four points.

South Korea came up short in their title-defence and completed the preliminaries with three points, while Iran suffered their third loss in as many tries for last place in their group with zero points. The Saudis now face off with hosts and Group B winners Bahrain in the semi-finals while Kuwait take on Japan.

Both fixtures are scheduled to take place tomorrow at the same venue, with the Kuwaitis and Japanese clashing at 4.30pm followed by the Saudis and Bahrainis locking horns at 7pm. South Korea and Iran still have matches to play to determine their final classification in the tournament. The South Koreans take on India while the Iranians play Pakistan, both tomorrow.

The two winners will then compete for fifth overall while the losers will battle for seventh place. In Saudi’s win yesterday, they held a narrow 15-14 edge at the break, but the South Koreans were able to steal away the advantage and behind four straight goals from Hyesung Cha, took a 24-21 lead midway through the second half.

But the Saudis battled back brilliantly and used a 6-1 rally, capped by an Ali Almohsen goal, to go ahead for good, 27-25. Their rivals were able to get to within two goals, 28-30, with just under two minutes remaining, but efforts from Mohammed Alabdulmuhsin and Murtaja Alkhedhrawi in the final minute sealed the win.

Alkhedhrawi paced the Saudis with 11 goals. Sajjad Alkhadimi added eight and he was later named the Best Player of the Match. Alabdulmuhsin chipped in with seven goals in the win. For South Korea, Cha was their leading scorer with eight goals, while Juseung Lee, Taegwan Kim and Daehyeon Kim finished with five apiece.

In Kuwait’s win, they were able to limit Iran to just six goals in the first 30 minutes of play and then held on in the final half, where they led by as many as seven goals, to seal the win. Fawaz Almashari scored six goals to pace Kuwait while Saif Aladwani added five and Abdullah Marafi had four. Mohammadreza Ghaffari scored seven to lead Iran in the loss while Reza Bayat contributed five goals.