By Abdellatif Sharra

KUWAIT: Semifinals of the 19th Asian Handball Championship, which qualifies for the World Cup in Egypt 2021, are set to start tomorrow at Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Hall in Sabah Al-Salem. Qatar and Japan already qualified, while the other two teams are yet to be decided. The winner of the match between South Korea and Iran will qualify, while the loser will take third place in Group B.

Meanwhile, the match between Bahrain and UAE will decide who joins Japan in the semifinals from Group A, which was full of surprises. Bahrain, which qualified for the Olympics for Asia two months ago, lost to Japan, while Saudi Arabia suffered an unexpected loss to UAE.

Meanwhile, Kuwait's exit from the second round and failure to qualify for the World Cup was seen as a surprise given the players' abilities and history of achievements. The team's visible confusion in the final 10 minutes of their meeting with Iran wasted their chance to win, before they unexpectedly collapsed against South Korea and seemed to capitulate following the first half until the end.

No appeasements
Assistant Secretary General of Kuwait Handball Association Abdallah Al-Thiyab issued an apology to Kuwaiti fans for being knocked out of the tournament. "We wanted to make them happy by reaching the World Cup finals, but it was not meant to be," he said. Thiyab asserted that there were not any "appeasement" made in selecting players to the national team. "Rather, we selected the best in Kuwaiti clubs, and there were some players who could not play for personal reasons," he explained.

"There were some negatives for sure, which we will study and (try to) avoid in the future," he said. "There was not any complacency on the players' part, rather all were up to their responsibility, but we did not succeed. I thank the players for their efforts in preparing for the tournament."

"Luck was against us"
Iraq's assistant coach Mahmoud Subhi expressed regret that his team failed to reach the World Cup, adding that the team prepared well and has good players, but luck was against them. Subhi predicts that Bahrain and South Korea will go on to join Qatar and Japan to the World Cup in Egypt.

China gets first win
China secured its first win in the consolation round, after losing twice in the tournament, beating Australia yesterday which suffered its second loss in the same round. Despite the close performance between the two teams in the first half which ended in favor of China 14-13, the second half saw tactical superiority for the Chinese who increased the goal difference to eight five minutes before the end of the match.