TEHRAN – Iran’s national junior handball team beat Saudi Arabia 33-32 in an 80-minute marathon on Sunday night to reach the final match of the Asian Championship.
At the end of 60 minutes of both teams’ tremendous efforts they ended 24-24 tie, to postpone the result to the end of two 5-minute extra times, at the end of the first the Saudis were ahead 27-26, but at the end of the second five minutes they ended 38-28.
After 70 minutes of hard work another two five-minute extra times was to determine who the winner is. The first five minutes ended 31-30 in Iran’s favor, and at the end of the second one, too, Iran was the winner 33-32, to reserve its place in the final of the Asian Junior Handball Championship.
The Iranian national junior handball team had in their group gained three victories and one defeat to reach the semi-final match versus Saudi Arabia.
The team had accepted defeat from South Korea 24-29 in their first match, but they beat India 64-14, Uzbekistan 35-23, and the host team Bahrain, that was the former Asian champ, 30-29 in a spectacular victory.
Saudi Arabia, too, had reached the semi-final with 5 victories mightily from Group B.
The final match for the Asian championship will be held at 7:30 pm on Wednesday August 31 between Iran and South Korea.