Another round of thrashing for the men

national men’s handball team, who are making their Asian Games debut, succumbed to their second defeat in as many games in Jakarta yesterday.

They were hammered 55-11 by Iran in their final Group A match at the POPKI Sports Hall. Iran were fourth at the last edition in Incheon four years ago.

On Monday, Malaysia were thrashed 64-11 by defending champions Qatar. They will now play in the classification round which starts on Monday.

Team manager A. Vijaya Kumar said: “The results were expected as the team are here just for exposure.

“Our preparations were limited due to lack of funding. Furthermore, most players either have full time jobs or are studying,” said Vijaya in Jakarta.

“For the men’s category, we knew it would be tough as Qatar and Iran are ranked fourth and 31st in the world.

“We were outclassed in all aspects. Our players felt nervous and made silly mistakes.”

The women's team, who lost 23-15 to hosts Indonesia on Tuesday, will face Japan (Sunday), followed by Thailand (Aug 21) and Hong Kong (Aug 23) in their remaining Group B matches.

“This is the first time we had lost to Indonesia. We defeated them at the International Handball Federation (IHF) Trophy in 2012, 2014 and 2016,” added Vijaya.

“The players were not fit enough to last the entire game and it was very obvious in the second half. We were also lacking in terms of players as some states were reluctant to release their Malaysia Games squad members.