The opening match at Boris Trajkovski Sports Centre on Day 4 of the 2024 IHF Women's Junior World Championship featured an all-Asian clash. Japan claimed their first victory at North Macedonia 2024, 43:20, comfortably defeating Chinese Taipei. 

GROUP D
Japan vs Chinese Taipei 43:20 (17:11)

Both teams had suffered two losses earlier in the competition and were certain to head to the President's Cup. But after a big win against Chinese Taipei, 43:20, Japan will start the next phase with two points.

The Chinese Taipei looked inspired early in the game and opened up a 3:0 lead following a couple of goals from right back Ya Ting Chang. But it did not take long for Japan to find their rhythm and turn the tide. In the eighth minute, they drew level at 4:4 and then started to pull clear.

However, the Chinese Taipei were unable to hold back right back Ayumu Koyama, who scored seven goals in the first half. Her teammate Mizuki Sugimoto made quite a few important saves, helping Japan to take a comfortable six-goal lead at the break, 17:11. 

After the restart, Japan were even more dominant. They opened the second half with a 5:0 run before the Chinese Taipei could finally score, and went on to control the match. Chinese Taipei made as many as 33 turnovers throughout this game, which helped the Japanese to score from counterattacks.

Overall, Japan netted 26 times in the second half, hitting the 40-goal mark five minutes from full-time. Last year, they defeated Chinese Taipei 43:23 in the third place match at the 2023 Asian Women's Junior Handball Championship, and now Japan also scored 43 goals, but won even by a bigger margin. 

While Koyama added just one goal to her tally after the break, it was her teammate Mao Hashimoto, who came to the fore, as the left back ended the game as the top scorer with nine goals. 

Alkaloid Player of the Match: Hsin Yun Wu (Chinese Taipei)