As expected Kuwait beat Qatar (29-23) to finish the tournament undefeated. As the tournament winner they have also secured Asia’s automatic qualification spot for the 2008 Olympic Games. In the battle for 2nd place South Korea defeated hosts Japan (30-25) to earn a spot in a pre-olympic qualification tournament next spring. Currently they are slated to play in a qualifier that will be hosted by France with Croatia and the 3rd place African nation also participating.
The controversy surrounding South Korea’s opening round match loss to Kuwait continues to linger. This article from the Korean newspaper Chosun contains photos from the Korean protest outside the Kuwaiti Embassy in Seoul and indicates that the Koreans will formally protest to the AHF and IHF. http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200709/200709040027.html
Commentary: Without having seen the match it’s difficult to definitively state whether referee bias decided the outcome of the match. Still the circumstances surrounding the match are suspicious. Why did a Jordanian pair officiate a pivotal match when an experienced German pair is available? Why does an IHF representative have to "warn" the officials in the middle of a match? That’s not a routine event. It will be interesting to see how the IHF responds to the Korean letter and would definitely be interesting to see a tape of the suspect match. I’m guessing that it would make the officiating of the Germany – France World Championship final seem relatively uncontroversial.
[b]Match Results[/b]
Kuwait – South Korea 28-20
Japan – UAE 33 – 28
Qatar – UAE 33 – 28
South Korea – Qatar 35 – 14
Japan – Kuwait 27 – 29
UAE – Kuwait 26 – 37
Japan – Qatar 36 – 25
South Korea – UAE 35 – 25
Kuwait – Qatar 29 – 23
South Korea – Japan 30 -25
[b]Final Standings W T L Pts GF GA GD[/b]
Kuwait 4 0 0 8 123 96 +27
South Korea 3 0 1 6 120 92 +28
Japan 2 0 2 4 121 112 +9
Qatar 1 0 3 2 95 128 -33
UAE 0 0 4 0 107 138 -31
Match Reports: http://www.handball.jp/games/2007/toyota_yosen/daily-n.html
Updated 2008 Men’s Olympic Qualification Status: http://teamhandballnews.com/page17.html