Nagoya, Japan, September 21, 2026: In a close contest, Korea’s men’s handball team inched past Kuwait 26-23 in their opening Group B encounter at the 20thAsian Games on Monday.
Led by head coach Cho Young-shin, Korea displayed an effective balance of attack and defense to see off the powerful Kuwait team in the closing stages.
The two teams were evenly balanced throughout the first half, which resulted in a deadlock score of 12-12 at half-time.
Kim Jinyoung led the Korean scorers with 6 goals from 9 shots for 67%, while Kim Taegwan contributed 5 from 7 shots at 71%. Kim Rakchan added 4 from 6 at 67%.
Humood Al Adwani (6/9, 67%) and Husain Al Mutawa (6/7, 86%) led the Kuwait reply with 12 goals between them.
Kuwait had led 11-9, only for Korea's Kim Rakchan and Kim Taegwan to pull Korea level at 11-11. After Saif Aladwani regained the lead for Kuwait, Kim Jinyoung scored in the 30th minute to even the score at the break 12-12.
The second half also proved to be a close contest. The scores were tied 22-22 at the 55th minute before Korea scored three unanswered goals to open up a significant gap at 25-22, enabling them to see out the match for the win.
Speaking after the match, Korea head coach Cho Young-shin said: "Since this is our first match, the difficulty level of this match was greater than we expected.
“The Kuwaiti team had obviously more physicality and strength than our team; however, our defense was excellent towards the end, where we were able to subdue the Kuwaiti players from scoring anymore goals towards the end of the match."