Men’s table tennis ‘Great Wall’ falls to China to win bronze at Pyeongchang Asian Games

South Korean men’s table tennis could not overcome the ‘Great Wall of China’ and settled for bronze in the team event at the PyeongChang 2023 AsianTable Tennis Championships.South Korea’s Jang Woo-jin (Invincible), Lim Jong-hoon and Ahn Jae-hyun (Korea Exchange) fell to China 0-3 in the semifinals of the men’s team event on the fourth day of competition at the Pyeongchang Dome in Gangwon Province on Saturday.Korea’s team of Jang Woo-jin (No. 9), Lim Jong-hoon (No. 17) and Ahn Jae-hyun (No. 40), along with Oh Jun-sung (No. 91-Mirae Asset Securities) and Park Kang-hyun (No. 178-Korea Water Resources Corporation), clinched third place with the loss.The event does not have a third- or fourth-place playoff, with all semifinal losers receiving bronze medals.South Korea, which won the men’s team title at the 2021 edition in Doha, where China did not compete due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, failed to win its second straight title.It was the first time in eight years since the 2015 Pattaya Games that South Korea failed to reach the semifinals of the men’s team event. South Korea reached back-to-back finals in Wuxi in 2017 and Yogyakarta in 2019, winning silver.The Korean men will continue their medal hunt in the individual events, including singles, mixed doubles and men’s doubles.They will face Chinese Taipei, who are coming off a 3-0 win over India, at 7 p.m. to be crowned Asian champions.Men’s head coach Joo Se-hyuk is determined to go for the kill, starting ace Zhang Wu-jin at No. 1 singles.Chinese Men’s National Team head coach Wang Hao sent his “next generation ace” Wang Chuqin (No. 2) to the No. 1 singles spot, while filling out the lineup with world No. 1 Fan Zhendong and “table tennis GOAT” Marung (No. 3).Zhang played well, winning two games with a mix of hard hitting and unorthodox attacks, 카지노사이트킹 but eventually fell 1-3 (7-11 11-9 6-11 7-11) to Wang Chuqin.