Paraguay will play Colombia in the final of the inaugural IHF South and Central American Emerging Nations Men’s Championship tomorrow after the two nations won their semi-finals earlier today in Palmira, Colombia.
The host nation took to the court for their semi-final against Peru first and after a tight opening 15 minutes, they eventually broke free, going three clear (9:6) in the 21st minute. They extended that lead to four (12:8) in the 26th minute, but Peru would not lay down and two goals in the last 60 seconds saw them keep in touch at the pause.
The second half was nearly an exact copy of the first with both teams separated by only a few strikes and with 13 minutes left, it was just 18:17 to the hosts.
But Colombia regrouped and went four-up again (21:17) with just nine minutes left and confirmed at least a silver medal. Santiago Mosquera Mayo was deadly again, top-scoring with six for his Colombian side.
In the following semi-final, Paraguay came from a half-time deficit (11:10) against Guatemala to an eventual five-goal victory (25:20) as they restricted their opponents to just nine goals in the second half. Igor Garcete struck seven times for the South American side.
Results
Saturday 27 October
Semi-Finals
COL vs PER 25:21 (12:10)
GUA vs PAR 20:25 (11:10)
Placement Round 5-8
HON vs ECU 30:39 (18:18)
GUF vs CRC 23:24 (12:9)
Placement Round 9-11
PAN vs ESA 28:31 (16:11)
Teams in Colombia include Paraguay (PAR), Costa Rica (CRC), Panama (PAN), Colombia (COL), Ecuador (ECU), El Salvador (ESA), Honduras (HON), Guatemala (GUA), Peru (PER), French Guiana (GUF) and Bolivia (BOL).