KUWAIT CITY, Oct 19:  The Kuwaiti men's handball team faced a tough challenge as they competed against their Iranian counterparts in the Asian qualifiers for the Summer Olympics in Paris 2024. The final score was 28-29 in favor of Iran.

Abdulaziz Al Zaabi, the team manager, shared his insights after the match, which was the Kuwaiti team's debut in the Asian qualifiers hosted in Doha. He mentioned that technical errors affected the team's performance during the first half, which ended with a score of 12-17 in favor of Iran.

In the second half, the Kuwaiti team managed to correct their mistakes, reducing the score difference to five goals and even taking a two-goal lead. However, a rush in shooting and some missed opportunities impacted the game, resulting in a one-goal loss for the Kuwaiti team. Al Zaabi remained optimistic, stating that the Kuwaiti team is in the early stages of its journey and has the potential to outperform other teams in the qualifiers and advance to the semi-finals.

The Iranian team had also faced a defeat in their first match against the Japanese team with a score of 20-25. The Kuwaiti national team was scheduled to play their next match against Japan on the upcoming Saturday.

In other matches, the Saudi team lost to their South Korean counterparts with a score of 27-29, while the UAE team secured a victory over their Chinese counterparts with a score of 31-30. The match between Bahrain and Japan concluded with Japan's win, scoring 27-26. The day's matches wrapped up with the Qatari team's dominant victory over the Indian team with a score of 48-14.

The qualifiers, featuring 11 participating teams, will continue until October 28. The teams have been divided into two groups, with the top two from each group advancing to the semi-finals. The finalists will compete for the qualifying card for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

It's worth noting that this marks the third consecutive time that Qatar has hosted the Asian men's handball qualifiers for the Olympic Games, having previously hosted qualifiers for Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.