China failed to make it through to the semifinals of the Olympic women's handball tournament, beaten 32-28 by the defending champion Denmark in Athens on August 26.

The Chinese side created several scoring opportunities in the opening minutes, but failed to convert them into goals.

Thanks to a 3rd minute goal by their pivot Liu Yun, China took the lead with a nice effort from all six of their starting line-upjamming in the opponents' half, while the Danes leveled the score less than half a minute later.

Denmark, seeking a third successive gold medal here, made a 7-1run with ten minutes to go before the half-time, as goalie Rikke Schmidt saved five including a penalty.

China trailed 18-14 at the interval though a penalty was scoredbeating the clock, and failed to catch up from behind in the second half.

The Danes went into the last eight minutes with a five-point lead, and stayed with the advantage to win.

With the victory, Denmark set a semi-final clash on Friday against Ukraine, the weakest of the last four who advanced with a 25-23 narrow win over Spain.

China will face the Spaniard in Saturday's classification 5-8 match.