Attended by nine teams divided into two preliminary groups, the Asian tournament kicked off on May 08 in Pattaya. Beach Handball team of Iran faced host Thailand on Friday as the fifth day of the event.
Accordingly, the Persian side pulled out a 2-0 victory over Thai rivals and secured a place in the semifinal round. The Iranian squad had previously pulled off a sweeping 2-0 (20-11 and 16-9) win against the Afghan outfit in their opening Group B fixture and later sustained a defeat in the face of the Vietnamese side 1-2 (13-14, 18-15 and 8-9). Iranian sportsmen however managed to quell counterparts from the United Arab Emirates in their third encounter of the tournament.
Iran’s beach handball team is scheduled to take up Omani rivals in a semifinal fixture.
The Asian Men's & Women's Beach Handball Championship kicked off in Pattaya, Thailand, on May 8, and will wrap up on May 15, 2017.
The top three teams will qualify for the Beach Handball World Championship, scheduled to be held in Sochi, Russia, next year.
Iran has been placed against Afghanistan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam in Group B while Chinese Taipei, Oman, Qatar and Uzbekistan are pitted in Group A.
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