Members of Korea’s women’s handball team pose after winning the women’s handball tournament at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, Sunday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk
Korea won the women’s handball gold medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, ending an eight-year drought with a victory over host Japan.
Korea beat Japan 27-23 in the sixth and final round of the women’s handball competition at Entrio in Inazawa, just northwest of Nagoya, Japan.
With the win, Korea finished first with six wins from six matches, edging out Japan, which had five wins and one loss.
The women’s handball competition in Japan did not feature a knockout stage. Instead, all seven teams played each other once, with medals awarded based on their final round-robin standings.
Sunday’s gold marked Korea’s first Asian Games title in eight years, after the country won the event in 2014 and 2018 before finishing without gold in 2023.
It is also the country’s eighth Asian Games title overall since women’s handball was added to the quadrennial continental multisport competition in 1990.
Before Sunday’s match, Korea and Japan were the only undefeated teams, with five wins apiece.
The final Korea-Japan matchup was a rematch of the event’s final at the Hangzhou Asian Games in 2023, when Korea lost to Japan 29-19.
After a narrow 3-3 start, Korea scored four straight goals to take a 7-4 lead in the first 10 minutes but struggled against Japan’s tight defense, allowing the host to level the game at 7-7.
After a timely timeout by head coach Lee Kye-chung, Korean players found their rhythm and rallied to score nine goals to take a 16-12 lead into halftime.
Japan cut the deficit to 24-22 midway through the second half while Han Mi-seul was serving a two-minute suspension.
However, Park Sae-young’s saves kept Japan from narrowing the gap further, while Korea’s solid offense helped the team open up a 26-22 lead with two minutes remaining.
Kwon Han-na scored seven goals, and Ryu Eun-hee added six to spearhead the victory, while Kim Min-seo contributed four.
Goalkeeper Park Sae-young made 12 saves.