HANGZHOU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — China fell wanting reaching the ladies’s handball last on the Hangzhou Asian Games following a 30-23 defeat to defending champion South Korea right here on Tuesday.
South Korea seized the initiative and led with a four-point benefit via quick breaks. However, a resilient Chinese group managed to drag again, narrowing the hole to 1 level at halftime. Yet, China faltered within the second half, going practically 10 minutes with out scoring en path to the loss.
Jin Mengqing of China tied with Ryu Eun-hee of South Korea for the game-high seven targets, carefully adopted by Lee Mi-gyeong with six.
Zheng Yongli, the top coach of China, defined on the post-game press briefing that “We performed well in the first half but failed to deliver in the second half as the players began to burn out. The lack of international experience among our players contributed to the loss.”
South Korea’s head coach, Kurt Henrik Signells, praised China’s efficiency, saying “I haven’t seen China play a match like that. They really impressed and have improved a lot. We knew before the game that it would be a tough one.” He expressed satisfaction with the second half and the general sport, anticipating the difficult nature of the match.
In the opposite ladies’s semifinal, Japan, the bronze medalist at Jakarta 2018, simply defeated Kazakhstan 40-22 and can face South Korea within the last on Thursday when China and Kazakhstan will compete for the bronze.
On the boys’s facet, Bahrain survived a late scare to beat Japan 30-28, and can face defending champion Qatar in a rematch of the ultimate from the final Asiad.