Romania was shut out of the semifinals of Beijing Olympic women's handball event following a 34-30 defeat to a determined Hungary on Tuesday.

"Our team was still shadowed by the defeat to Norway. We made too many mistakes in our attack. Hungary was very motivated today, much more than us. They deserve the victory," said Romanian coach Gheorghe Tadici whose team suffered a one point loss to Norway in their last round-robin match.

The Hungarian side, fifth placer at 2004 Athens Games, took a quick 3-1 lead in the opening minutes. After ending the first half 16-14, they extended the lead to nine points midway of the second half.

Having scored 33 points in previous five preliminaries and finished second in the overall scoring list, Romanian right back Romona Maier added 11 on Tuesday to snatch the top position in the tally.

"I think it is meaningless to talk about my scores. Everyone has to be in the best shape. We need to have full teamwork and can't rely on individual players. The Hungary team did that better than us," said a disappointed Maier after the match.

Hungary will meet the winner between Russia and France in the semifinal. Talking about the next opponent, Hungarian coach Janos Hajdu said, "Russia is one of the top favorites in Beijing. But I hope France can beat them in the quarterfinal. Compared with Russia, we would rather to play against France."

Three times and reigning world champion Russia trounced Hungary 33-24 in a preliminary game played last Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2008)