Qatar trilogy part one: handball

Handball is the sport and the Al-Gharrafa Indoor Hall is the venue to be at on Thursday 14 December as Qatar begin their trilogy of team finals.

The basketball team and the footballers will battle China and Iraq respectively on Friday, while the less high-profile handballers will reach for the stars 24 hours before. They play Kuwait for the gold medal.

Qatar won bronze in Busan four years ago. Kuwait were winners of the silver and will be hoping to go one better in the cauldron of the Al-Gharrafa later.

It seems light years ago they locked swords with India in their first preliminary match on Sunday 3 December which they won 48-19. The host also beat Bahrain and minnows Macau, China in that first week of Doha 2006.

Qatar then went into the main draw with IR Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. They won all three and went to meet Korea in the semifinal.

The men in maroon were over the moon when they surprised Korea 40-28 to make the final. Kuwait were also comfortable winners over IR Iran 31-22.

"We know Kuwait and they know us for sure and it will be a tough game, they have one of the best goalkeepers," said Qatar's coach Ekrem Jaganjac, talking about Yousef Alfadhli who has save ratio of 48 percent.

The team have punched above their weight as they were not expected to reach the final. The squad of 16 range from the youngest Khalid Aifan Al Hashim, who only turned 20 in October to Abdulla Saad Al Saad who was born in 1971.

His brother Ahmad Saad Al Saad, who is three years younger, has been one of the superstars of the tournament. He has score 55 goals - the most in the tournament - and has a 68 percent accuracy rate with his shooting.

Chasing the right-hander in second place in the goal charts is Kuwait's Ali Abdulredha who scored eight in the semifinal against the Iranians. The form of two marksmen could be the deciding factor on which team gets their claws on the handball gold.

15th Asian Games, Doha 2006