The 2017 Asian Women’s Junior Championship finished late last month in Hong Kong with Korea winning their 14th straight title ahead of China in second place and Japan in third.

 

With the championship win Korea continued their record-setting run of results in the championship for U19 women in the continent. 2017 was the 14th edition of the championship since it started back in 1990 and they have now won all 14.

 

Running from the 15-23 July the 2017 championship saw seven teams take part including India, Uzbekistan, China, Kazakhstan, Japan, Korea and hosts Hong Kong.

 

Played in a round-robin tournament format over 21 games at the Kowloon Park Sports Centre, the team which finished top of the league took the title.

 

China and Korea threw things off in the tournament in the first game, which would prove to eventually be a title-decider as Korea easily won 41:25 (21:10). The Koreans went on to win their next four games which put them on 10 points going into their final match against Japan, who were on eight points and 15 goals behind on goal difference.

 

Despite leading 13:12 at half-time, Korea could only draw 21:21 in the final game of the competition but it was enough to put them onto 11 points and take the tournament title again.

 

China finished behind them in second, on 10 points, Japan in third on nine points. Kazakhstan ended their campaign on fourth with six points, Uzbekistan fifth with four, while hosts Hong Kong finished fifth on two points. India, who lost all six of their games, finished in last place.

 

The silver medal for China was their sixth in the competition history while for Japan their bronze was the fifth time they had picked up third place.

 

The top four teams of Korea, China, Japan and Kazakhstan all qualified for the 2018 IHF Women’s Junior World Championship to be held in Hungary next summer.

 

FINAL RANKING

1. Korea

2. China

3. Japan

4. Kazakhstan

5. Uzbekistan

6. Hong Kong

7. India