Olympic champion France and Croatia – a former Olympic and world champion – both won on Sunday to ensure they would advance from Group I to the semifinals of the Handball World Championship. However Group II remains wide open, with Denmark leading the group with six points, one ahead of defending champion Germany and two more than Norway and Poland. France was made to work hard by South Korea, which earlier ousted Spain from the championship to be the only non-European team to make it through to the main round of the competition. South Korea matched France up until the 34th minute when the score was tied at 16-16. But Michael Guigou, Guillaume Gille and Nikola Karabatic then scored eight straight goals in 13 minutes to subdue the South Korean challenge and take France – unbeaten in seven matches – through to the semifinals. Meanwhile, Croatia – World Champion in 2003 and Olympic gold medalist in 1996 and 2004 – had a comfortable 31-25 win over Slovakia. Also in Group I, Hungary defeated Sweden 31-30. France and Croatia have eight points each and cannot be caught by the other teams in their group. Slovakia and Hungary each have three points and Sweden two. In Group II, Germany's lost to Norway, 24-25, while Poland easily beat Serbia 35-23. Serbia had started the competition strongly, but against Poland appeared fatigued and was outscored 21 to seven in the first half. Meanwhile, Denmark beat FYR Macedonia 32-24 and put them out of contention for a semifinal spot. In another match, Russia defeated Saudi Arabia 34
