TIANJIN, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jiangsu beat arch-rival Shandong 23-13 in the men's handball final to retain its title at the Chinese National Games here on Monday.
It's the third time for Jiangsu to beat Shandong in the men's handball final at the National Games. In Shandong in 2009 and in Liaoning in 2013, Jiangsu beat Shandong twice to complete a back-to-back.
Tian Rui's goal opened the scoring for Shandong, but Jiangsu quickly answered with a 3-0 run and forced Shandong to call a timeout. But it failed to help Shandong much as the defending champion had enlarged the lead to six points by halftime.
Shandong scored only one point in the first 15 minutes of the second half and could do nothing but watch the gap become larger.
"We made full preparations for the final as we know Shandong very well, as much as they know us," said Yan Weiming, head coach of the Jiangsu team. "To complete back-to-back-to-back put a lot of pressure on both players and coaches. I could feel their nervousness even off the court. But as the match went on, they found their confidence in defense."
Goalkeeper for Jiangsu Wang Quan was selected as the Player of the Match after the final.
"Wang Quan did a great job in defense, which helped his teammates a lot. I would gave 70% of the gold medal to him," said Yan.
The bronze medal went to Beijing, who beat Guangdong 23-17 in the third place classification.
The women's handball event will start on Thursday.
