TEHRAN – Iran lost to Kazakhstan 30-24 in their opening match of the 2022 Asian Women's Junior Handball Championship on Tuesday.

The Persians are scheduled to play India on Thursday.

The Championship is be 16th edition of the championship scheduled to be held from Mar. 7 to 14 in Almaty, Kazakhstan under the aegis of Asian Handball Federation.

Kazakhstan, Iran, Uzbekistan, India and Thailand compete in the edition.

It’s the fifth time in history that the championship is be organized by the Kazakhstan Handball Federation.

It also acts as the qualification tournament for the 2022 Women's Junior World Handball Championship, with top two teams from the championship directly qualifying for the event to be held in Slovenia.

Previously, the championship was supposed to be held in Uzbekistan, but in December 2021, AHF decided to move the event to Kazakhstan due to unavoidable circumstances.