Korea Defeats United Arab Emirates in Men’s Handball

The Korean men’s national handball team won two straight matches to defeat the United Arab Emirates at the Asian Men’s 2008 Beijing Olympic Qualifications yesterday.

Led by coach Kim Tae-hun (Hana Bank), the national team beat the UAE team 35-25 in the third match of the preliminaries held at Toyota Sky Hall in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on September 5. Korea won two consecutive games after having lost to Kuwait 20-28 in the first match due to blatantly unfair refereeing.

With a record of two victories and one loss, Korea can secure second place and advance to the International Handball Federation’s handball tournament that will decide further candidates to go to the Olympics scheduled for May 2008, if it wins its final match with Japan, the current host country on September 6.

Kuwait, now in the first place in preliminary matches, is expected to go straight on to the Olympic games. The Middle Eastern country, which is on a winning streak with three victories, will have its last match with Qatar on September 6.

Nineteen minutes into the first half, Korea led the UAE 10-5, but it conceded goals shortly after to let the UAE close to 10-8. However, the Korean national team, driven by the offense of Jo Chi-hyo (Balingen) and Yun Gyeong-shin (Hamburg), finished the first half ahead 18-10.

Korea did not let their guard down during the last half and clinched the victory. An Iranian judge refereed and there was no controversy over the refereeing in this match.

bluesky@donga.com