Tuesday, January 26, 2010 – The Singapore 1st Youth Handball Tournament 2010 kicks off in the sunny island of Singapore as the country host with participating teams from Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong. This tournament will be held from 26th – 28th January 2010 in the centre city, Suntec City Convention Hall which hosted many major international events such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting. This dual leg tournament will see the brightest youth talents from the 3 countries competing against one another before the Youth Olympic Games 2010 which will be held in Singapore in August 2010.
The curtain opener match was between the girls from Chinese Taipei and Hong Kong. The Chinese Taipei team which is a regional powerhouse for handball in Asia was evident when the team was physically the stronger of both. The Taipei team started the game with a comfortable lead and started to pull away from the Hong Kong team. With an offense built around wing players, Huang Wen Yu (jersey no. 14) and Koh Fu Mei (jersey no. 17), the Taipei team was in control of the game from the start to the end. Contributing almost half the goals from the entire team, both Huang and Koh were clearly the main attacking options of the team.
The Hong Kong team took a longer time to settle into the game but was clearly not giving up the game without a good fight; playmaker Leung Sun Ying (jersey no. 4) was able to orchestrate the offensive move with good individual display of footwork and speed and managed to bring the Hong Kong team back on track. Adopting a patience approach, the Hong Kong players were finding every opportunity to break through the defence line which was held firmly by Taipei’s Shin We Ju (jersey no.4). Her towering presence was hard to go unnoticed from the spectators stand as she put pressure into every offensive play made by the Hong Kong team giving them very little opportunity to play through the middle. The Taiwanese coach, Pan Chien Hung was loud with his instructions off the court while emphasizing on the players maintenance of their defence line. By half time, Team Chinese Taipei was leading Team Hong Kong with a score of 10 – 6. 
The 2nd half of the game started with Shin scoring from the middle for Team Taipei with a 5 goals difference between the two. A frenzy work of good skill and teamwork came from Huang and Koh to score a series of consecutive goals leaving the Team Hong Kong with an uphill task of keeping pace. In a span of 3 minutes, 3 penalties were concealed by Team Hong Kong as the Taiwanese pulled a commanding lead of fast breaks and wing offences. Team Taipei was quick dishing out passes in numerous figure-8 set plays and often caught the Hong Kong players unaware with their quick attack down the middle court. Although lacking in physical advantage, the Hong Kong players refused to give in with a determined strong defence. 
Coordinated set plays and well drilled movements allowed the Taiwanese to lead from the start of the game to the end leaving their counterparts trailing for the entire game. Team Taipei won the match convincingly a score of 27 – 11 over Team Hong Kong.Written by : Janelle Koh
Photos taken by: Meiyin
No comments:
Post a Comment