India emerged as the dominant force at the IHF Trophy – Asia Zone II, winning both the junior and youth competitions at the end of the competition which took place in the Shaheed Captain M. Mansur Ali Stadium in Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, between 10 and 14 June.

The tournament, held from 9 to 14 June, brought together India, Yemen, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan in the junior (U20) competition and India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Afghanistan in the youth (U18) competition, highlighting once again the crucial path of this competition in the development of handball throughout the world.

In the junior competition, India showed consistency throughout the tournament and confirmed their superiority in the decisive matches. Their campaign was built on a fantastic attack, which started providing in the preliminary round, where they took wins against Yemen (53:31) and Nepal (68:20).

Shiva Kumar scored 10 goals in the first match, while India had four players, Rahul Gurjar (15 goals), Vipul Vipul and Sushil Sushil (11 goals each) and Tousif Rasool (10 goals) score in double digits.

They were followed in the semi-finals by Yemen, which took a 37:15 against Nepal in the second matchday.

In Group B, hosts Bangladesh finished top, with wins over Afghanistan (43:22) and Maldives (39:17), with Maldives edging out Afghanistan, 33:31, and progressed to the semi-finals.

Hosts Bangladesh progressed to the final after a dramatic semi-final against Yemen, where the guests mounted a later comeback to push the match into extra-time, after the two sides were deadlocked after 60 minutes, 33:33.

Bangladesh were stronger, and with nine goals from Ratul Uddin progressed to the final, with a 38:37, where India were waiting, after they dominated Maldives, 58:23.

There was no question about the winner, as India started strong and never looked back, as Sushil Sushil scored 11 goals, while Tousif Rasool added nine goals, to clinch a 48:27 win.

Yemen beat Maldives, 39:32, to take the bronze medal.

Four India players - Rahul Gurjar (41 goals), Sushil Sushil (35 goals), Vipul Vipul and Tousif Rasool (both 31 goals)  finished on the top four places in the top goal scorer standings.

India repeated the feat in the youth competition, where they again stood out as the strongest team in the field. Their path to the trophy featured convincing victories and a collective display that underlined the depth of talent in the country’s younger age groups.

With only five teams, the format was changed to a round-robin, where India had the best attack, the second best defence and were the only undefeated team.

First, they took a 49:27 win over Nepal, following up with a 39:35 win against hosts Bangladesh, in a match they dominated and where Lalit Lalit scored 14 goals.

Then, India clinched a 54:30 win against Afghanistan and a 49:22 win against Maldives to secure the first place in dominant fashion.

Bangadesh finished second, after wins against Maldives (32:23), Nepal (39:25) and Afghanistan (47:23), with the podium completed by Nepal (4 points), which finished ahead of Maldives (2 points) and Afghanistan (0 points).

India qualified for both the junior and the youth continental phases of the IHF Trophy Men.

Bangladesh’s Jebedai Bawm was the top scorer, with 39 goals, followed by Afghanistan’s Mohammad Samandary (36 goals) and Nepal’s Sumit Pun (32 goals).