Korea Women's Handball is one win away from qualifying for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The Korean women's handball team, led by head coach Henrik Signell (SWE), defeated Kazakhstan 45-24 in the third match of the Paris Olympic Games Asian Qualification Tournament in Hiroshima, Japan, on Wednesday.
The victory was the third in a row for South Korea, which had previously won against India (53-14) and China (33-20).
South Korea will play Japan in the final match of the tournament on March 23 at 3pm.
Japan also defeated China 35-18 earlier in the day for its third straight win.
The winner of the Korea-Japan match will earn a direct ticket to Paris as the top qualifier.
Only the top team in the pool play qualifier will qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The runner-up will have to try to qualify again through an intercontinental playoff.
South Korea hasn't missed an Olympic Games since the 1984 Los Angeles Games. With the exception of the 2004 Athens and 2008 Beijing Games, all of them went straight to the Olympic stage through the Asian qualifiers.
South Korea punched its ticket in 2004 by finishing second in the Asian Qualifiers and third at the World Championships that followed, and in 2008 by finishing second in the Asian Qualifiers and second at the International Handball Federation (IHF) Olympic Qualifiers.
The Korean women's handball team, which holds the record for the most consecutive Olympic qualifications for both men and women, will be looking to qualify for their 11th consecutive Games.
Song Hye-soo (Gwangju City Corporation) was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) with six points, while veteran Ryu Eun-hee (Győri, Hungary), playing in her first tournament, scored a team-high eight points, including four goals from 7 meters.
Kang Eun-hye (6 goals-SK), Kang Kyung-min (Gwangju City Corporation) and Song Ji-young (Seoul Metropolitan Government-over 4 goals) also contributed.
"The game against Japan will be completely different from what we've played so far," said Signell, "It's going to be a battle between two of the best teams, and because we know each other so well, it's going to be the little things, the details, that will decide the game." 안전놀이터