Women’s Handball Team Overcomes ‘Weakest Team’ Evaluation and Reports First Win Against Germany
The women’s handball team, Korea’s only ‘team ball sport representative’ at the 2024 Paris Olympics, caused an upset in the first match of the group stage and won its first game. The Korean women’s handball team won 23-22 against Germany in the first match of Group A held at the South Paris Arena on the 25th.
Eun-hee Ryu makes a shot during the 2024 Paris Olympics handball preliminary match between Korea and Germany held at South Paris Arena 6 in Paris, France on the 25th (local time).
Korea is the only non-European team in Group A and the only team among the 12 countries participating in this Olympics that did not make it into the top 20 at the World Championships last year. However, Korea did not give up a lead of more than 2 points to Germany even once in the first half. Rather, Korea, which took a 9-8 lead with Jeon Ji-yeon’s goal at 19 minutes and 19 seconds in the second half, did not give up the lead after that and finished the first half with a one-point lead of 11-10.
Kang Kyung-min scored the first goal on the right side 59 seconds into the game and made all 5 of his shot attempts before his diving shot hit the goal post at 27 minutes and 1 second in the first half. Kang Kyung-min led the offense by scoring 6 goals, the most on the team, along with Ryu Eun-hee.
Germany ran away with a 18-14 lead until 15 minutes and 16 seconds into the second half. However, Korea tied the score at 19-19 with Kang Eun-hee’s shot with 8 minutes and 30 seconds left, and the two teams continued to trade goals in a seesaw game. Korea took a 22-21 lead when Kang Kyung-min earned a 7-meter penalty throw and Woo Bit-na converted it. With 1 minute and 14 seconds left, Korea secured a 1-point lead with consecutive saves by goalkeeper Park Se-young, and Kang Kyung-min added a goal with 22 seconds left to make it 23-21. Germany closed the gap with a penalty throw with 13 seconds left, but that was it.
Twelve countries participated in the women’s handball competition at the Paris Olympics. They were divided into two groups of six teams each and played in the group stage, and the top four from each group advanced to the quarterfinals. Group A includes Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, who came in 2nd, 3rd, and 4th respectively at last year’s World Championships. Germany came in 6th and Slovenia came in 11th. Korea came in 22nd.
Korea will play its second match against Slovenia at the same venue on the 28th at 6 p.m. 안전놀이터
