Qatar Defeat Japan at World Youth Handball

Yekaterinburg, Russia, August 16 (QNA) - Qatar defeated Japan, 27-23 (half-time 14-9) in the playoff for 17th to 20th places at the IHF Youth (Men's) World Handball Championships at the Palace of Sports Uralian on Sunday. In the same playoff section, Germany trounced Poland 45-19 (ht 19-7). Qatar and Germany will play the President's Cup final tomorrow, August 17, which also decides 17/18 place in the championship ranking. In the playoff for 21st to 24th places, Argentina won a thrilling match against Algeria, 29-28 after trailing 11-13 at half-time. Pedro Moreno's ten goals propelled Venezuela to a 32-17 (ht16-12) win over Chile. Qatar opened the score first and held a steady two-goal lead through the first half. Qatar's tall defenders blocked and intercepted Japanese forwards. The Marooners's early advantage proved decisive, with the two-goal difference remaining midway through the half. Yuya Nomura scored a left wing shot from an acute angle in the 25th to take the score to 11:8, but Qatar were firmly ahead and maintained their lead until half-time. Qatar played almost the same seven players for the entire first period, only changing their wingers and having Gamal Ahmed, who scored their first goal, coming in as a specialist attacker. Goalkeeper Ahmed Abdelrhem made a penalty save to keep Qatar ahead by six in the 40th minute (19:13), and as the game entered its last ten minutes they retained their lead (23:18). Japan goalkeeper Tatsu Moriwaki, who joined the starting 16 Saturday in place of injured left back Ishado Makino, made a spectacular save of a six-metre breakthrough in the 54th, but at that point the match was already decided. Poland suffered their worst defeat against in the tournament as Germany trounced them by 26 goals at the Uralian. Scoring just seven goals in the first half, Poland were lacklustre and uninterested as Germany continued to play their effective, if not scintillating handball to record their second highest win of the championship, after their demolition of Venezuela during the group stage. Noah Beyer top scored for Germany on seven and Kamil Netz top scored on six for Poland. Argentina won against Algeria on penalties after regulation 60 minutes ended 24:24. With the scores at 19:19 and down by one man, Agustin Forlino made a fantastic save from Djeghaba Nidhal Baha to keep it level as Algeria moved to a 4-2 defence to try and break up Argentinas court play and finish the game in time. A fast-break put Algeria 24:23 up with moments to spare and despite the tough defence, Argentina broke through to bring it level. A team time out from Algeria with 30 seconds left gave Algeria a last chance to go in front by their poor shot ended with the ball breaking to Argentina and with desperate defending the Algerians found themselves with Baha and Yassine Massaoud on the court following a clash of heads, the result throw hit the Algerian wall and the game went direct to penalty shots. With both teams changing their goalkeepers, both teams missed their fourth penalties in the first five, as first Boudaoui Hicham had his saved by Forlino and then Mariano Bustamente had his saved by Ghedbane Khalifa. The penalties went into sudden death and as Nicolas Bono scored past Khalifa, Baha stepped up and his shot, which lacked conviction, was easily saved by Forlino to spark wild celebrations. (QNA)