France held off a frantic comeback by defending gold medalists Denmark for a 25-23 victory in the men’s handball final in Tokyo.
Denmark had a chance to tie the game in regulation, but lost the ball and surrendered an empty-net goal as time expired. The Danes trailed by four points at the half and six points in the second half before staging a furious comeback to close the gap to one goal with 15 seconds left in the game.
Mikkel Hansen and Matthias Gidsel led the Danes with nine points and six points, respectively.
France spread the scoring out with nine players scoring at least two goals. Nedim Remli led the French with five points.
Denmark battled past European title holders Spain on Thursday to book their place in the men's handball final where they will take on France in a rematch of their Rio 2016 gold medal clash.
France earlier overcame dark horse Egypt 27-23 at the Yoyogi National Stadium to reach their fourth consecutive Olympic final. Self-named 'Les Experts,' the French men’s team won gold in Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Information from, Reuters was used in this report.
