Hosts Bangladesh emerged champions in the Youth (U-17) group of the four-nation Bangabandhu IHF Challenge Trophy Women’s Handball '2023 beating their giant rival India by 46-43 goal in a keenly contest final at the Shaheed Captain (Retd) M Mansur Ali National Handball Stadium here on Wednesday.  The match was locked in 20-20 goal in the first half.    

Hosts Bangladesh will play Singapore in one of the two opening day matches in Group E of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup Qualifiers on Wednesday (Oct 5), at the  Bir Shrestha Shaheed Shipahi Mohammad Mostafa Kamal Stadium in Kamalapur.The match will kick-off at 7 pm (BST). Yemen and Bhutan, the other two teams in the group, will square off in the inaugural match at 4pm on the day.Under 17 teams of -- Yemen, Singapore, Bhutan and hosts Bangladesh --in Group E will compete in the four-nation qualifying meet scheduled for Dhaka from October 5 to 9.The final round of the AFC U-17 Asian Cup Championship will be held in May 3-10 next year. Read: Bangladesh to participate in SAFF, AFC U-17 FootballIn the remaining Group E matches, Bangladesh will play Bhutan on Friday (Oct 7) at 7pm and Yemen on Sunday (Oct 9) also at 7pm at the same venue. Bangladesh comparatively played better football in the last three tournaments-SAFF U-20, SAFF U-17 and Asian Youth U-20 football --in last two months, all on foreign soil, featuring a goalless draw with upper ranked hosts Bahrain last month.