Asian Games: India men slump to second successive loss in handball

Jakarta: Indian men’s handball team’s hopes of qualifying for main round of the Asian Games suffered a big blow as it went down to Bahrain 32-25 in a Group D game here on Wednesday.

This was the second successive loss for the Indian men after being outplayed by Chinese Taipei (38-28) in their opening match.

India are at the rock bottom of the group while Bahrain lead the table with two wins from as many games. Iraq and Taipei have two points from the same number of matches.

Bahrain led 18-12 at the half-time. Though India fared much better in the second half, it was too little too late.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) had initially decided not to send the men’s handball team as it was ranked 12th in Asia. The IOA was against sending a team not ranked in the top-eight spot in Asia. But the pullout of Australia, Uzbekistan, the UAE, China and Oman meant India were ranked number seven. The Handball Federation of India cited this logic and the IOA finally gave the nod after the intervention of the Allahabad High Court.