"I'm upset because I feel like I blew my chance to carry on the work of my sisters."

Even the usually steadfast Ryu Eun-hee (33, Gyori, Hungary) finally broke down. South Korea's women's handball team lost to Japan in the final of the Hangzhou Asian Games to claim the silver medal.

South Korea fell to Japan 19-29 in the women's handball final on Friday at the Zhejiang Gongfu University Gymnasium in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China.

It was South Korea's first loss against Japan in 13 years since the semifinals of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

South Korea was the undisputed Asian champion in women's handball.

They have won all but one Asian Games since Beijing 1990, when women's handball became an official sport of the Asian Games.

Only in Guangzhou 2010 did they win a bronze medal, falling to Japan in the semifinals.

The Japanese were unable to overcome China in the final and took home the silver medal.

Since then, South Korea has never lost to Japan.

Over the past year, South Korea has been in a close battle with Japan for the top spot in Asia, but the results have all been in South Korea's favor.

Last December, they won the Asian Championship final 34-29 in overtime. 온라인카지노

In the final of the Asian qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics in August, South Korea won 25-24 to punch their ticket to the Olympic Games.

In Hangzhou, they were looking to win their third consecutive title, following Incheon in 2014 and Jakarta-Palembang in 2018.

In the semifinals, South Korea defeated China 30-23, while Japan thrashed Kazakhstan 40-22.

As expected, South Korea and Japan made it to the final.

Japan, who had previously lost the gold medal to South Korea, showed up with a new uniform. Instead of blue, they wore yellow, the color of gold, as they attempted to win their first gold medal at the Asian Games.

It was expected to be a tight game. However, the game tilted in Japan's favor early on.

Korea's long shots were repeatedly blocked by Japan's short goalkeeper Atsuko Baba.

Even the veteran Ryu Eun-hee was unable to convert a 7-meter throw into a goal for the first time in the tournament.

Baba is the shortest of the two goalkeepers at 1.64 meters tall. Despite this, she stopped eight of South Korea's first 10 shots and controlled the early flow. The Koreans had a flurry of shooting opportunities, but Japan's tight defense prevented them from closing the gap to five points. Korea ended the first half trailing 8-14.

Korea started the second half with back-to-back goals from Kang Kyung-min and Kim Bo-eun to pull within 10-15.

However, a series of successful Japanese attacks quickly increased the score to 10-18.

Meanwhile, Korea had the misfortune to have their shots in one-on-one chances with the goalkeeper repeatedly hit the post and bounced back.

Trailing 13-22 with 19 minutes left in the game, Kim Sun-hwa's attempted turnaround mid-range shot hit Baba's foot and went out of bounds. South Korea's silver medal and Japan's first ever gold medal were sealed.

"I feel so bad," Ryu Eun-hee said after the match, constantly choking back the tears that were welling up in her eyes.

"I knew how important this match was, so I really wanted to win," she said, adding, "I always tried my best to play my role as a top player, but it didn't go my way and I kept getting squeaky clean.

I made too many mistakes." "For the next tournament, I will work harder with my older sisters to prepare for the Korea-Japan match with more confidence," said Kim Min-seo, the youngest at 19.