Home victory for Kazakhstan in Almaty: The 2008 Olympic participant has won the 13th Women’s Asian Championship thanks to a close 33:32 (16:15) victory over Korea in the final in Almaty. The host remained the only unbeaten team in the whole competition. In another very narrow match China took the third place winning the bronze final against Japan 26:25 (14:12). Prior to that Kazakhstan had beaten Japan 29:24 (16:13) in the semi-final, whereas Korea had defeated China (31:26).
All four Asian semi-finalists are directly qualified for the 2011 Women’s World Championship in Brazil, like reigning champion Russia, host Brazil and the European Championship medallists Norway, Sweden and Romania. In contrast to Europe the Championship in Almaty was not the qualification tournament for the Olympics 2012 – as the Asian nations play an additional qualification in October 2011.
It was one of the biggest successes ever for Kazakhstan, whereas Korea again failed in the race for Gold. For them it was the second crucial defeat within a few weeks after missing the gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou. In China they took the bronze medal after losing the semi against Japan.
Final ranking:
Gold: Kazakhstan, Silver: Korea, Bronze: China, 4. Japan, 5. DPR Korea, 6. Uzbekistan, 7. Thailand, 8. Iran
Placement matches: 7/8: Thailand – Iran 30:20 (11:7), 5/6: DPR Korea – Uzbekistan 52:21 (24:7)