Youth handball team crash out of Asian event

Dubai: The UAE under-19 handball team failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Asian youth championship held in Jordan despite defeating Iraq 37-27 in their last match in group A.

The UAE were defeated by South Korea in their first match in the group and then by Japan, which denied them reaching the quarters.

UAE coach Nicola Marcovic said the team showed a good performance despite the defeats.

"The youth team is the future of the UAE national team. They played well in all the three matches in group A. We lost with narrow margins in both matches against Korea and Japan.

"I was disappointed that we couldn't reach the quarterfinals although I was confident the players would perform well and they did, but lack of experience cost them two important matches," said Marcovic.