South Korea eke out victory over Denmark

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - South Korea dented Europe's dominance of men's handball on Tuesday, with a heart-stopping 31-30 victory over Denmark in their preliminary round match.

South Korea's presence at the Olympics was briefly under threat by a dispute over alleged match-fixing at the qualifiers, and the squad only narrowly missed pulling off a win against Germany in their first match on Sunday.

"I've never been so excited since I started playing handball," South Korean winger Jung Suyoung said. "I admit we are not still not as good as the European teams. What we have to do is show our best in every coming match."

But Denmark coach Ulrik Wilbek said it was Europe that was feeling challenged.

"It's very hard for European teams to play Korea because we don't play them too often. They are very, very fast, very good at movements and attacks."

In other matches, European teams dominated.

Russia and Spain managed narrow, last-minute wins over Egypt and Poland, but Olympic champions Croatia cruised to a 33-14 victory over Brazil. China, fielding its first Olympic handball team, lost to France.

On Thursday, Croatia and France will face off, while South Korea will take on Iceland. The final is on August 24.