S. Korea beats Hong Kong to begin women's handball competition

Inazawa, Japan — South Korea began its women's handball tournament at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday with a commanding victory. Under the guidance of coach Lee Kye-chung, the South Korean team outscored Hong Kong 48-16 at Entrio in Inazawa, located just northwest of the main host city, Nagoya, Japan. Early in the match, South Korea took an early lead of 5-2, before mounting an impressive 11-2 surge that effectively sealed the game.

Lee Won-jung was the standout performer, scoring a tournament-high nine goals, while Jeon Ji-yeon added eight more. A dozen players contributed a goal or more for South Korea.

This particular women's handball tournament will lack a knockout stage, with the top three teams among the seven participating teams advancing to the medal round after the round-robin phase. South Korea will face Kazakhstan on Sunday, Uzbekistan on Wednesday, China on Friday, Vietnam next Saturday, and Japan on September 27. Assuming no unexpected upsets, a South Korea-Japan showdown is likely to determine the gold medal.

South Korea has claimed gold medals in 2014 and 2018, but fell short to Japan in the 2023 final. At the pregame ceremony, the national anthems for both teams were not performed. The organizers also faced an anthem blunder during the event.