International Handball Federation praised Iranian women national handball team performance in 2021 AHF Women’s Asian Championship in Jordan against Syria in a report on its website on Sunday.
Tuesday 21 September 2021 will go down in Islamic Republic of Iran’s handball history as it was the day that their women’s national team confirmed their first-ever IHF Women’s World Championship qualification, the report said.
After overcoming hosts Jordan in their previous match, the harder work was done, but Iran knew a win over Syria would mathematically secure a semi-final spot and with it, one of the five direct tickets for the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship in Spain, it added.
IHF’s report also highlighted the achievement being fulfilled in a condition that Iranian team’s head coach Ezatollah Razmgar and his assistant Nashmin Shafeiyan were missing the bench to witness history in person which left team manager Nahideh Maghboul and physiotherapist Fatemeh Jafari Darbandi running the bench for the four remaining games of Iran’s seven in total.
After Iran’s acceptable losing against Japan (20:23), wins came against Kuwait (38:11), Palestine (52:9), and a well-fought – and crucial for Spain 2021 qualification – victory against hosts Jordan (28:22), a game which had seen the coaching staff members test positive for COVID-19 just two hours before, according to the report.
“The win put Iran through to the last four where they would face the all-conquering Republic of Korea – not only fresh from their Olympic Games experience but with a record of having won medals in all previous 17 editions of the championship, with 14 golds, including the last four.”
Point to Iran’s losing against Republic of Korea and Kazakhstan, the report added, “Despite the final game upset, thoughts quickly turned to their preliminary group at Spain 2021, where they will have an almost immediate opportunity to get revenge on Kazakhstan with the two Asian sides joined by the legendary Norway, plus the Cristina Neagu-led Romania.”
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