South Korean men’s table tennis had to settle for its eighth consecutive Asian Games silver medal with just one dent in its ‘Great Wall’.
The Korean men’s team, coached by Joo Se-hyuk, fell to China 0-3 in the men’s team event on Saturday at the Archer Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, after winning just one game.
This is the eighth consecutive silver medal for the Korean men’s table tennis team in the team event at the Asian Games, dating back to 1994 in Hiroshima.
In each of those eight finals, Korea lost to China.
With their eighth consecutive men’s team title, China also won their fifth consecutive men’s and women’s team titles.
Earlier in the day, China swept Japan 3-0 in the women’s team final.
Lim Jong-hoon (17th-Korea Exchange), Ahn Jae-hyun (38th-Korea Exchange), Park Kang-hyun (176th-Korea Water Resources Corporation), 온라인카지노 Jang Woo-jin (13th) and Oh Jun-sung (97th-Mirae Asset Securities) also won silver medals.
Oh, who was born in June 2006, became the youngest Korean men’s table tennis medalist at 17 years old.
His father, Oh Sang, also became a “father and son medalist” with the Mirae Asset Securities coach.
Oh won seven silver and two bronze medals at the Asian Games during his career.
The Chinese lineup of Fan Zhendong, Wang Chuqin, and Marung are the world’s top singles players, ranked 1-3.
The Chinese players, who were outclassed in terms of objective power, played a “different kind of table tennis” in front of their home fans, who packed the 6,900-seat stadium.
The Chinese players scored even when it looked like they would never get the ball over.
Even when the Koreans took the lead, they never wavered and fought back.
The intense focus of Chinese table tennis, which is stronger in close games, also shone in Hangzhou.
The sound of “jiaoyou” (加油) echoed through the stadium whenever a Korean player took the lead.
Only Lim Jong-hoon won a game at first singles, while the other players dropped their matches without winning a single game.
Lim Jong-hoon fought back from a 2-7 deficit in game two to win 11-8, but was unable to overcome Wang Chu-chin’s angled deep backhand and lost 1-3 (9-11 11-8 5-11 10-12).
Lim is the only Korean to win even one game against a Chinese player in the men’s team event at the tournament.
Ahn Jae-hyun lost 0-3 (6-11 10-12 3-11) to Pan Jeon-dong, while Park Kang-hyun also lost 0-3 (3-11 10-12 6-11) to Marung. 슬롯
