Handball Team in Semis After China Drubbing
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
For the first 40 minutes, a spirited Chinese women’s handball team looked capable of upsetting the defending Olympic silver medalists. Then the South Koreans blew them out of the water in a blink.
The Koreans remained on course for an Olympic medal by defeating China 31-23 in the quarterfinals at the Beijing Olympics Tuesday.
They are set for a dual Thursday against Norway, the runner-up in last year’s World Championships. The winner will earn a berth in the gold medal match.
Tuesday’s match was not as lopsided as the score indicated, with China, coached by former Korean men’s star Kang Jae-won, proving resilient and coaxing a super-human performance from Korean goalie Oh Young-ran, who finished with 19 saves.
``We were trying to show them how strong Korea is, and keeping them from believing that they can beat us,’’ Oh said.
``I prepared, watched a lot of video ahead of the game and prepared for their players,’’ she said. ``I ended up blocking a lot of their attempts.’’
The teams were engaged in a dogfight from the start, with Korea’s Moon Pil-hee and Oh Seong-ok, in her fourth Olympics, contributing to a 6-2 lead in the eighth minute, only to have the Chinese make it 6-4 moments later.
The Koreans seemed to pull away after the 24th minute, with Huh Soon-young establishing her presence around the paint and Moon scoring on the run to expand the lead to 14-6.
However, the Chinese turned the momentum around after Park Chung-hee was benched with a two-minute suspension a minute later. China got goals by Li Weiwei, Liu Xiaomei and Huang Dongjie making it 15-12.
A goal by Park had the Koreans leading 16-12 at the half, but China continued to put on pressure, with Wang Shasha’s goal in the 39th minute cutting the Korean lead to 18-16.
However, the Koreans finally shook off their pesky opponents. Oh scored from distance on the following possession, and Park and Moon followed by scoring two goals each to spark a 5-0 run.
Moon, Park and An Jung-hwa collaborated on another 5-0 run after the 47th minute to make it 28-18, which served as the final nail to the Chinese coffin.
Many have doubted the Korean chances of winning the gold, with the aging women’s team still retaining the core of the squads it sent to the Sydney and Athens Games. The average age of the Korean players is 34.
``They are good enough to win the gold,’’ Kang said after the game.
``I wish them luck against Norway.’’
Oh, the 36-year-old veteran who is considered the emotional leader of the team, isn’t interested in settling for anything less than a top finish.
``We suffered an embarrassing defeat to Norway in last year’s World Championships, so we have been hungry for redemption,” said Oh.
``We were expecting to meet Norway in the gold medal game, but we got them in the semifinals,’’ she said. ``It doesn’t matter, we are prepared and we expect a great game Thursday.’’