Jakarta, Indonesia was the setting of
the 15th Asian Women’s Championship, which took place from 14 to 23
March, and Korea was the dominant winner of the competition clearly justifying
their roles as favourites.
Korea proved to be the strongest team of
the event from the preliminary phase on as they clearly defeated all their
competitors in group A. They opened the tournament with a victory against Iran,
then outclassed India which opened the path to their third and final victory in
the preliminary round against traditional rivals Japan (32:20).
In the meantime, in Group B it was China
and Kazakhstan who called the shots as they both showed class defeating their
rivals from Group B. China defeated Uzbekistan in their first game, then Hong
Kong and hosts Indonesia in order to qualify for the semi-finals before their
last game of the preliminary round against strong Kazakhstan. On the other
hand, the Kazakh team opened the tournament with a clear victory against
neighbours Uzbekistan, managed to raise their level against Indonesia, and
finally defeated Hong Kong before their final group encounter against China,
which decided which team would be avoiding Korea in the semi-finals. Kazakhstan
was the better team in this important match and won the game by 33:29, after
their best player Aleksandrova scored amazing 14 goals in the Chinese net.
In the semi-finals Korea continued their
successful hunt for the Trophy and defeated China 42:23 led by Jung-yu Ra who
scored 7 goals, while Japan surprised with a magnificent performance against
Kazakhstan and secured a convincing 37:21 victory, thus scheduling a re-match
with their Korean rivals in the final.
The bronze medal match was of great
importance as its winner would qualify for the 2015 Women’s Handball World
Championship in Denmark. China learned from their defeat against Kazakhstan in
the preliminary round and started the game strongly already leading 18:9 after
30 minutes. The girls from Kazakhstan, led by their best scorer Aleksandrova
who had double digits once again (11 goals), tried to push back in the second
half but only managed a three goal defeat. The final score: China – Kazakhstan
28:25 (18:9).
The final match was once again a display
of Korean flair, as the defending champion opened the game strongly and had a
ten goal advantage already at the half time break. In the second half, they
continued their fast-paced game and, led by Lee Eun-bi who scored seven times,
finished the game with a victory. Final score: Korea – Japan 36:22 (18:8)
The results of the 15th Asian
Women’s Handball Championship mean that the teams of Korea, Japan and China
have qualified for the 2015 Women’s World Championship in Denmark, while
Kazakhstan will seek their chance in the final qualification tournament
together with Algeria and the best non-qualified teams from Pan America and
Oceania.
The full results summary and ranking of
the 15th Asian Women’s Championship can be found on the following
link:
http://awhc2015-indonesia.com/page/79365/results-and-schedules.html