Over the past two days the goalball competition in Incheon has been on the schedule at the 2014 Asian Para Games.
 
The mens competition features eight teams while the women’s consists of five.
 
Day one was our first look at most of the teams. The results showed us who the title contenders were and who could surprise us.
 
Iran and Iraq were the first two male teams to take centre stage. The Iranians picked up where they left off at last year’s IBSA Goalball Asia/Pacific Championships with another dominating performance at a regional tournament. They cruised past Iraq 13-4. The match started close but as it developed, so did the gap between the two teams. Hassan Jafari was one of the keys to this dominance after scoring 11 of the Iranian goals.
 
Men from China and Japan were next. This is perhaps quite a surprising result after China coasted past the Japanese 6-0
 
Next it was time to see if the Japanese women could score a win against their traditional rivals, China. China scored two goals in the first half and this was enough to ensure the win. The Japanese were also able to score late in the first half but they were never able to get that second goal in what ended up being a scoreless second half.
 
The other women’s match for the day was that between hosts Korea and Thailand. Korea was ecstatic after they were able to get their campaign off with a win. A steady 4-0 was the final result.
 
The Korean men though also wanted to show that they were serious and that they did. They moved past the team from Mongolia 10-0 in the first half.
 
The day ended with what was perhaps the highlight of the men’s competition for the day, the match up between Jordan and Qatar. A hard thought match that may have resulted in Jordan winning 8-5 but it wasn’t easy. At the break the two teams were still equal 3-3. However the Jordanians were able to pull away that little bit in the second half. Despite all attempts by the Qataris’ it just wasn’t enough and once the Jordanians got that lead they were not willing to give it up.
 
We now look forward to day two’s results to see if the title contenders can remain consistent.
 
Full table standings can be found below:
 
Men’s Pool A
Korea 1 0 0 10 0 3 10 10
Iran 1 0 0 13 4 3 9 2
Iraq 0 0 1 4 13 0 -9 -2
Mongolia 0 0 1 0 10 0 -10 -10
 
Men’s Pool B
China 1 0 0 6 0 3 6 4
Jordan 1 0 0 8 5 3 3 0
Qatar 0 0 1 5 8 0 -3 0
Japan 0 0 1 0 6 0 -6 -4
 
Women’s Pool Y
Korea 1 0 0 4 0 3 4 3
China 1 0 0 2 1 3 1 2
Iran 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Japan 0 0 1 1 2 0 -1 -2
Thailand 0 0 1 0 4 0 -4 -2