The favourite justified its role in Incheon, Korea, as earlier this morning the star-studded team of Qatar, led by World Champion Valero Rivera, defeated host Korea in a very thrilling and exciting final. The spectators witnessed a real handball feast in the crowded Seonhak Handball Gymnasium.
The defence was decisive in this very equal game. Even though Korea had a better start into the game and had an 8:6 lead midway in the first half, the Qatari team managed to turn the game by tightening the defence even more and went in the break with a narrow 11:12 lead. The host refused to surrender and the second half was played goal for goal and at 20:20 the result was levelled only six minutes before the end. The Qatari team was more successful in the final section of the game and managed to break the deadlock by winning 21:24. In fact, the host of the 2015 World Championship never had a lead bigger than three goals in the entire course of the game. Bertrand Roine leads the list of the top scorers of Qatar, finding the net of the opponents six times while Youssef Benali and Eidar Memisevic had 5 goals each behind their names. Their goalkeeper Goran Stojanovic also had a performance worth noting making 12 saves on the day. The Korean team had three players scoring four goals each with Dongeunn Yun and Junggeu Parko having an 80% efficiency each.
In the match for bronze medal, Bahrain defeated Iran by 28:25 (12:13) proving that the second place at the Asian Championship was not an accident.
In the women’s tournament it was another favourite that claimed the title. Host Korea defeated their neighbours from Japan clearly 29:19 (17:5). The Korean girls started very strongly and with each minute of the first half, their lead was increasing. The fast breaks proved once again a very strong weapon in the Korean outfit so their opponent really struggled to find their way into the match. Leading so clearly, Korea took the foot off the gas in the second half and allowed the Japanese team to make the defeat a little bit more acceptable. Eunhee RYU scored 8 goals with an excellent efficiency of 80% for Korea, while Aya Yokoshima scored three times for Japan being their best scorer of the game.
In the bronze medal match, Kazakhstan won against China 27:26 after losing the first half by 13:15.
article: IHF
