Kazakhstan's women's handball team lost 24:34 to China in their first match of the Asian Games handball tournament in Japan. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.

Match progress

For most of the first half, the Kazakh team played evenly with their opponents. Moreover, in the 25th minute, Irina Khasakhanova put our team ahead for the first time in the match at 11:10.

Unfortunately, they could not build on this success. The Chinese scored four goals in a row and finished the first thirty minutes with that gap – 16:12. After the break, our team was constantly trailing by 4-5 goals, but faded in the closing stages. In the end, they finished minus 10 – 24:34.

Top scorer

Khasakhanova ultimately became the top scorer in our team with 9 goals. For the Chinese, their captain Chang Liu scored the same number.

🏐 CHINA – KAZAKHSTAN 34:24, SOUTH KOREA – HONG KONG 48:16, JAPAN – VIETNAM 40:14

Tournament format

The format of the women's handball tournament at the 2026 Asian Games is extremely simple. Seven teams in a single round-robin tournament will determine the winners and medalists. Tomorrow Kazakhstan will play against the main favorite of the tournament, South Korea, which crushed Hong Kong at the start – 48:16. On September 22, Marina Pikalova's charges will compete against Vietnam, on the 23rd – against Hong Kong, on the 25th – against Japan, and on the 26th – against Uzbekistan.

Historical context

Until now, only three teams have won gold in women's handball at the Asian Games, with South Korea doing so seven times. At the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China interrupted the Korean dominance. At the last Asian Games in Hangzhou, Japan won.

Kazakhstan's handball players twice, in 2002 and 2006, became vice-champions. At the 2014 Asian Games, our girls won bronze.

About the 2026 Asian Games

The XX Summer Asian Games in Nagoya will officially open today, September 19. In the multi-sport competitions with athletes from 45 countries, 460 sets of medals will be awarded. 217 – among men, 204 – among women, and 39 – in mixed categories. Tournaments will be held in 68 disciplines of 41 sports.

A total of 559 athletes will represent Kazakhstan at the 2026 Asian Games.