Women's Handball Crushes Hong Kong 48-16, Begins Quest to Reclaim Title After 8 Years

The South Korean women's national handball team, aiming to reclaim the Asian Games title for the first time in eight years, achieved a decisive victory over underdog Hong Kong.

Under the direction of head coach Lee Gye-cheong, the team defeated Hong Kong 48-16 in the first preliminary round robin match of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, held on the 19th at Entio in Inazawa, near Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Wonjeong Lee and Jiyeon Jeon led the way, scoring 9 and 8 goals respectively.

The women's national handball team conducted an open training session at the media day for the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games handball team held on the 9th at the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon-gun, Chungbuk. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

South Korea scored their first goal just over two minutes into the game with a shot from Wonjeong Lee. Although they soon conceded an equalizer to make it 1-1, goals from Jiyeon Jeon and Han Kwon, followed by consecutive goals from Wonjeong Lee, put the team ahead 5-1. After allowing another goal to Hong Kong, South Korea responded with six unanswered goals, taking an 11-2 lead just 14 minutes into the match and effectively securing an early advantage.

South Korea dominated both the first and second halves with a score of 24-8 in each, completing a commanding 32-point victory. Head coach Lee Gye-cheong rotated players evenly to check their condition.

Seven countries are participating in the women's handball event at this tournament. Medal positions will be determined based on the round robin results, without any separate knockout stage. The final match against Japan is widely regarded as the de facto gold medal decider.

South Korea will face Kazakhstan on the 20th, Uzbekistan on the 23rd, China on the 25th, and Vietnam on the 26th, before playing their final round robin match against Japan on the 27th.

Women's handball was first introduced as an official sport at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games. South Korea has secured gold in every tournament except the 2010 Guangzhou and 2022 Hangzhou Games. The team dominated the Asian stage, including a five-consecutive-title run from the 1990 Beijing event through to the 2006 Doha Games. However, at the most recent Hangzhou Asian Games, South Korea suffered a heavy 19-29 defeat to Japan in the final and had to settle for silver.

Meanwhile, before the start of matches on this day, when the handball schedule began, an incident occurred during the national anthem ceremony in which neither the South Korean national anthem nor the Chinese national anthem representing Hong Kong was played.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.