Men’s handball Asian Games Jakarta Palembang 2018

18th  Asian Games Jakarta

Palembang 2018

Qatar Wins gold In Men’s handball

In

Asian Games 2018

Antara/Palembang/ Jakarta            

Qatar's men's handball team won the gold medal after defeating Bahrain with a score of 32-27 through an additional 2x5 minutes in the 2018 Asian Games final at POPKI Stadium, Cibubur, East Jakarta, on Friday.

In the first half of the match, Bahrain led with 14-13.

As the second half started, both teams played aggressively eventually leading to violent clashes between the players.  Japanese referees Kiyoshi Hizaki and Tomokazu Ikebuchi issued yellow cards to both sides.

One of Qatar's players, Rafael Capote, said he was proud to be able to perform well and help contribute gold to his country following a 70-minute struggle.

"We fought hard to win. At the last minute we were left behind by one point, 24-25. But finally, we could score and equalize the score to 25-25," said Capote.

In the locker room, Rafael admitted he said that his team would win with an additional 2x5 minutes. And it was proven later.

In the 2x5 minutes of extra time, the Qatar team, which was dominated by naturalized players, managed to suppress Bahrain so that Bahrain was only able to score two goals.

With the victory over Bahrain, Qatar clinched the gold medal and Bahrain won the silver medal.

Bahrain coach Aron Kristjansson said he was not satisfied with the results, while accusing the referee of being unjust while leading the match.

"I'm satisfied with the match tonight. Our team played well but the referee seemed to have been unfair while leading the match," he said.

He said further that his team could have won the match if there was no extra time.