South Korea's Women's Handball Team Rout Hong Kong 48-16 in Opener [Nagoya AG]

[Financial News] South Korea's women's national handball team, seeking to reclaim the Asian Games title after eight years, routed Hong Kong.
Led by coach Lee Kye-chung, the team defeated Hong Kong 48-16 (24-8, 24-8) in the first round-robin match of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games at ENTRIO in Inazawa, near Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on the 19th.
South Korea took a 5-2 lead at the start, held Hong Kong to two goals, and then scored six straight to pull away to 11-2, effectively deciding the outcome early.
The two wing attackers, Wonjong Lee (9 goals, Daegu City) and Jeon Ji-yeon (8 goals, Samcheok City Hall), scored actively. Kim Min-seo (6 goals, Samcheok City Hall) and Woo Bit-na (5 goals, Seoul Metropolitan Government) also contributed to the victory.
Coach Lee Kye-chung rotated his players evenly to assess their condition.
The seven teams in the tournament will be ranked based on their results after playing each other once.
South Korea's women's handball team won consecutive titles at the 2014 Incheon Asian Games and the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games. However, it suffered a heavy 19-29 defeat to Japan in the final of the 2022 Asian Games and had to settle for the silver medal.
South Korea will face Kazakhstan on the 20th, Uzbekistan on the 23rd, China on the 25th, and Vietnam on the 26th, before taking on Japan on the 27th in the final round-robin match, which is effectively a final.
Meanwhile, on the day the handball schedule began, an incident occurred during the pregame national ceremony in which neither South Korea's national anthem nor China's national anthem for Hong Kong was played.
It was the second such incident following the previous day's men's hockey match between South Korea and Bangladesh, when North Korea's national anthem was played instead of South Korea's.
[email protected] Jang Min-kwon Reporter