Korea
Coach: Jong Ha Park
Key Players: Kwangil Jeong (Pivot), Taegyu Kim (Centre Back), Seokju Kang (Left Back)
Qualification information: 1st - Asian Men’s Youth Championship 2014
History in Tournament: 2005: 2nd, 2007: 11th, 2009: DNQ, 2011: 11th, 2013: 21st
Overview:
It was an extremely disappointing outing last time around for Korea at a Youth World Championship with the Asian side finishing a lowly 21st - above Gabon, Chile and Angola - in 2013 in Hungary.
Head Coach Jong Ha Park will be looking to finish higher than that, although their group is tough, featuring four European sides including Hungary, Sweden, Poland and Serbia, along with Chile.
However, the first place finish in the 2014 Asian Men’s Youth Championship will give the side momentum going into Russia.
Park, who has been a teacher since 1988 in middle and high schools and along with the team, feels confident of good results with the Korean Handball Federation looking towards a top 10 finish.
They will be hard-pressed to replicate their silver medal from the first-ever Men’s Youth Championship held in Qatar in 2005, where Korea lost 39:23 against the strong Serbia and Montenegro side in the final.
Perhaps buoyed by the Korean women’s gold medal (beating Russia 32:31 in the final) at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, the Korean U19 men lead by pivot Kwangil Jeong, centre back Taegyu Kim and left back Seokju Kang will cause their relatively inexperienced internationally opponents headaches with their open defence, super-quick fast-breaks and strength.
Group at Russia 2015:
Group A: Hungary, Sweden, Poland, Chile, Serbia, Korea
Games at Russia 2015:
Saturday 8 August: KOR-CHI (14:00)
Monday 10 August: SRB-KOR (20:00)
Tuesday 11 August: SWE-KOR (18:00)
Thursday 13 August: KOR-HUN (18:00)
Friday 14 August: KOR-POL (18:00)