BLUMENAU – This Friday was a busy day on the courts of the SESI’s Sports Complex in Blumenau, Brazil due to the semi-finals of the 21st World University Handball Championship.
The first teams to battle for a spot in the finals were the teams of the Czech Republic and Romania in the women’s competition and the teams of the Czech Republic and Portugal in the men’s tournament.
Third and fourth places will be decided between Brazil and Poland, for both competitions.
Semi-Final Results
The first game this Friday was played at 10 am local time between Uruguay and Chile (women) with a victory for Chile after a tight game, beating Uruguay 25:20.
At the same time, the men’s teams from Chile and Mexico played a fairly even match, where both teams were racing the clock to increase the score. With both teams communicating well, the result was a tie (28:28). Thus, the teams will play each other face again for the ninth place.
The match between Chinese Taipei and South Korea (men’s competition) that started at 12 p.m. was a genuine thriller. Chinese Taipei won from the Koreans with 32:30. Chinese Taipei tried to close the gap with Korea the whole game and managed to tie the game in the final seconds, taking the match to the 7 meters throw. Chinese Taipei stood out defending 3 shots, achieving victory. They now face Turkey for the fifth place.
Turkey and Kuwait battled it out next which resulted in a score of 48:29 in favor of the Team Turkey. The negative result was already expected based on Kuwait’s campaign, which won only 1 game, getting ahead only of Mexico, which didn’t manage to get any victory.
The Czech Republic (women’s tournament) won against Poland by a difference of only 3 goals (30:27), securing its spot in the finals.
The game between Brazil and Romania (women’s tournament) was even more balanced. The score was 27:28 in favor of Romania, which also classified for the Golden Game.
The Brazilian Men’s Team faced the Czech Republic for the semi-finals which resulted in a victory for the Czechs (30:36).
The game between Poland and Portugal ended the competition day. A surprising match where the Polish were the favorites, didn’t end as expected, but with a Portuguese victory: 26:27 for Portugal.
The 21st World University Handball Championship is an event by FISU, the Brazilian University Sports Federation (CBDU) and the Federal Brazilian Government. It is founded by: Blumenau’s FMD, the State, Culture and Tourism Secretariat from the Government of Santa Catarina and is supported by The State Sports Federation and Blumenau’s City Hall.
(Source: Mariley Carneiro, OC – Photos by Thiago Parmalat)
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