By Anil John/Incheon, South Korea

At the Seonhak Handball Gymnasium, a brand new facility built for the Games, the Qataris displayed enough intent and character to rally from a 0-2 deficit in the opening minutes to post what in the end was a comprehensive victory after leading 15-9 at half-time

Hadi Hamdoon was the top scorer for Qatar with five goals, followed by Rafael Capote, Abdulrazzaq Murad and Vidal Borje with four apiece. Kamalaldin Mallash and Youssef Benali also made handy contributions, scoring three each.

“Winning the opening match of a competition is always advantageous,” Qatar coach Velero Rivera told journalists later. “We never underestimate any team, especially in as big a competition as the Asian Games.”

Rivera added that the efforts made by Qatar to promote handball on a vast scale were paying off well. “Qatar sees handball as a very important sport that has the potential to develop into a popular spectator sport. This is evident from the number of people watching handball games at important tournaments in Qatar.”  Qatar, who won the Asian Championship in Bahrain recently, were a tad slow to start off, conceding two goals early in the match, scored by Imad al-Dughaishi and Nasr al-Tamimi. But they showed no signs of panic as Mallash put Qatar on the score sheet and then Hassan Mabrook equalised with a brilliant shot before Hamdoon’s first goal of the match put them 3-2 ahead.

Qatar managed to hold on to their slender lead for almost five minutes before Oman drew level through Imad al-Dughaishi, but the athletic Capote  found the net twice in two minutes from acute angles to put his team 5-3 ahead.

From then on it was Qatar all the way as they launched swift attacks from both wings and  severely tested the Omani defence with some sharp passing and skillful dribbling.

Only the Omani goalkeeper Muneer al-Bulushi acquitted himself well, bringing off  several stunning saves but for which his team would have lost by an even bigger margin.

Al-Bulushi even managed to impress Rivera with his performance, the Qatar coach describing him as an “excellent” goalkeeper. “I am not the kind of person who will put any team down. True, we won the match handsomely, but Oman also fought well. I have only one word for them and that is ‘respect’. Their goalkeeper was excellent.”

Oman, however, had conceded far too many goals by the end of the first half to entertain any realistic hopes of a comeback, especially because Qatar were not too keen on taking the foot off the accelerator. In fact, they came out with renewed vigour in the second session which saw Vidal regain his scoring touch after having fluffed several chances earlier. The powerful playmaker scored three superb goals, and with Benali and Murad also excelling up front, Oman stood no chance.

Coach Rivera said he felt no pressure at the Games, although he would try to eliminate some of the ‘mistakes’ the team made when they take on the UAE today. “We made a few mistakes today,” he said without elaborating. “Today was the first day of the competition and these things happen, but overall I am satisfied with the show put up by the boys,” he said before rushing to the court once again to see China take on the UAE.

Meanwhile, the Qatar Handball Association president Ahmed Mohamed al-Shaabi was also all smiles as he interacted with journalists after spending some time congratulating the players in their dressing room. “We are happy to have a win in the beginning,” said al-Shaabi who was confident Qatar would be on the podium.

“Four years ago at the Guangzhou Asian Games we finished fifth, but this time we are targeting a medal and boys are all focused on the job ahead.”

Meanwhile, China edged the UAE 25-22 after leading 13-9 at half-time. China were beaten to the gold by South Korea at the last Asian Games.