The Hindu : Sport : Korea storms into semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Sports : General

Korea storms into semifinals

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 13. Korea beat Qatar 32-26 and moved into the semifinals of the ninth Asian handball championship for junior men at the Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium (Yousufguda) here today.

Korea dominated the first half with expected ease as Chae Chang Suk, Cho Jeong Re and Kim Yuang Min worked in tandem and showed their class in the rotation pattern on top of the rival defence. This combination set up the scoring opportunities for Oh Yun-Suk (8) and Jing Su Young (5), who struck when it mattered the most. At half-time, Korea led 20-10.

On resumption, a visibly relaxed Korea almost paid the penalty for being too complacent as Boumaraf Mahmoud (7) and Ghazal Mohamad (7) struck the desired rhythm with admirable support from the wily Ibrahim Abdul Aziz and Al Hasheim Khalid who fed them with accurate passes from the corners.

Just when Qatar, which surprised China 32-24 late last night to keep it's hopes of booking a berth for the knock-out phase alive, threatened to take control, the Koreans moved into top gear virtually closing all escape routes for the opponent. This was the phase when Chae, Jeong Rae and Kim Min were all over the rival defence. The speed and the manner in which they slipped through the crowded defence was in itself an object lesson. And more importantly, they ensured that Korea maintained a comfortable lead in the final minutes to clinch the issue.

In another match, Japan scored a convincing 32-17 win against Chinese Taipei to make it to the last four stage. At half-time, it led 16-10. As usual, the combination of Miyajima Ryuji (8), Mekaru Atsushi (7) and Kaido Morihide (5) did most of the scoring with good support from Yoshida Stoshi (3), Maezato Takumi (3) and Ogawa Yuya (4). For the loser, Chuo Chia-Hung (6) and Yen Kuo-Sung (5) were the main scorers.

Defending champion Kuwait and Iran were the other two teams which completed the semifinal line-up.

Other results: Group A: Qatar 32 (Ghazal Mohammad 10, Boumaraf Mahamad 9) bt China 24 (Wang Wei 7, Song Tao 7).

Group B: Japan 42 (Tanahara Ryo 12, Someya Yuki 8) bt Bangladesh 14 (Rahman Waliour 5, Mohamed Sadiq 3); Oman 55 (A.D. Mahir Saif 10, A.H. Hussain Ali 8) bt Bangladesh 16 (H.K. Tanjid 3). — V.V. Subrahmanyam

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