Hosts reach top eight in eves
Monday, 18 August 2008
BEIJING, Aug 17 : Hosts China reached the quarterfinals at Beijing Olympic women's handball after stunning European powerhouse France 21-18 in their last preliminary game here Sunday.
"The key to our victory is the change of the defending strategy. In the previous four games, we always adopted a 3-2-1 defending system, which left too much space for opponents to break through. But today we tightened our defending line," said Kang Jae-won, silver medallist at 1988 Seoul Games.
France, fifth placer in 2007 World Championship, must have done their homework, but they appeared nail-biting in front of China's new defence system, only netting in five points 20 minutes into the game.
"The key to our victory is the change of the defending strategy. In the previous four games, we always adopted a 3-2-1 defending system, which left too much space for opponents to break through. But today we tightened our defending line," said Kang Jae-won, silver medallist at 1988 Seoul Games.
France, fifth placer in 2007 World Championship, must have done their homework, but they appeared nail-biting in front of China's new defence system, only netting in five points 20 minutes into the game.