The curtain for the Beijing Olympic handball events was raised in the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium in Beijing on Saturday. Host China tasted a sour defeat while none of the three Olympic debut teams managed to grab a win in the first round of the preliminaries.

China, the fourth placer of the Athens Games, played an aggressive first half against European Champion and runner-up of 2007 World Championship Norway in front of a jubilant crowd of local fans. However, China's diversity of attacks ended with countless long-shots.

Norway's fast counter-attack helped them build up a seven-point lead when they clinched their opening win 30-23 at the buzzer.

"Before the match, we intentionally encouraged the players to launch more shots in order to help them build confidence. But as the game went on, we found more and more difficult to break their solid defense, which forced us to fire more long-shots," said Chinese coach Kang Jae Won, who is a former S. Korean handballer and won a silver in 1988 Seoul Games.

"Although we lost the game to a world class team, our players have gained confidence from this game," Kang added.

Russia, Sweden and Kazakhstan were the three teams that experienced their Olympic debut today.

Although never competing in the Olympic Games, Russia has been ruling women's handball world championships since 2005 with two titles snatched in a row. And they were considered as one of the top favorites in Beijing.

However, when the glorious squad stepped in the Olympic arena, they still found trouble to retain their vigor, drawing 29-29 with the energetic South Korean side.

The "Viking" Sweden was beaten 24-30 by a bull-like Hungary squad, who enjoyed a comfortable control from the very beginning of the match, while Asian Champion Kazakhstan lost to Romannia 19-31.

In today's first game played between France and African Champ Angola, France surged back in the second half to outscore the opponent 32-21 in an injury-torn game.

Bombo Calandula of Angola twisted her knee in the first minute of the game, never managing to return to the court again. While French right back Camille Ayglon got hit in the nose and was carried out in stretcher. The injury might cause a fracture and ruined her entire Olympic journey.

The third placer of 2007 World Champion Germany upset Brazil 24-22 in the last game of the day.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2008)