'Overwhelming' Women's Handball Crushes Hong Kong by a Massive 32 Points... Aiming for Gold Medal After 8 Years

*This content was translated by AI.

The Korean women's handball national team secured a decisive victory in their opening match at the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, igniting their campaign to reclaim the gold medal after eight years.

Under coach Lee Gye-cheong, Ji Hwi-ha-neun (CEO) defeated Hong Kong 48-16 in the first round-robin match of the women's handball tournament at Entrio Inazawa in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 19th.

In this tournament, seven nations — Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Kazakhstan, China, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam — will compete in a full round-robin format to determine medal colors based on final standings. Having won seven of the nine Asian Games editions held since the 1990 Beijing tournament, Korea aims to shed the disappointment of settling for silver after losing 19-29 to Japan in the 2022 Hangzhou final and return to the top of Asia with a perfect record and gold medal this time.

From the opening match, Korea displayed an overwhelming skill gap. The team dominated Hong Kong throughout the game.

Korea opened the scoring with a clean goal by Lee Won-jeong in the second minute of the first half and quickly built a lead through sharp counterattacks led by Jeon Ji-yeon and Lee Yeon-gyeong. While Hong Kong struggled on both offense and defense, Korea seized complete control. By the end of the first half, three consecutive goals from Jeon Ji-yeon helped Korea finish the period with a 24-8 lead.

In the second half, Korea utilized players evenly from its roster to manage stamina. Maintaining a balanced scoring attack, Korea extended its lead to 31 points five minutes before the final whistle. Lee Won-jeong led the offense with nine goals and Jeon Ji-yeon added eight, completing a dominant 48-16 victory with a 32-point margin.

Having started their campaign impressively, Korea will face Kazakhstan in the second round-robin match at 1:30 p.m. on the 20th. They will then take on Iran on the 22nd, Uzbekistan on the 23rd, China on the 25th, and Vietnam on the 26th. The tournament concludes on the final day, the 27th at 5 p.m., with a decisive round-robin match against host nation Japan that will effectively determine the gold medal winner.

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*This content was translated by AI.