Korean Table Tennis, Possible to Cross the Great Wall of China

Korean Table Tennis, Will it be Possible to Cross the Great Wall of China in Busan… First Idea

Will Korean table tennis overcome the Great Wall of China in Busan? The first home world championship fanfare, the women's national team led by Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee, won the gold medal, and the men's team, which won three consecutive awards in 'Three Kingdoms of Korea, China and Japan', challenged for its first championship... 'Catch Marung!'

100th Anniversary of Korean Table Tennis, First World Championships

Korean table tennis is taking on the golden challenge at the World Championships held in Korea for the first time.

The BNK Busan Bank 2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships will be held at the BEXCO Special Stadium in Busan from the 16th to the 25th.

This is the first time that the World Table Tennis Championships will be held in Korea, which boasts 100 years of table tennis history. 온라인카지노

The World Table Tennis Championships are run with individual competitions in odd-numbered years and team competitions in even-numbered years.

This competition completes the 57th World Table Tennis Championships along with the individual competition held in Durban, South Africa last year.

40 teams for both men and women will participate and compete for 10 days for the championship trophies, the Corbillon Cup (women) and the Swaddling Cup (men).

To win, you must pass the preliminary league, in which five teams compete in eight groups, and survive the final tournament.

The top team from each group advances directly to the round of 16.

The second- and third-place teams will face off in the first round of the finals, and the winning team will fill the remaining eight spots in the round of 16.

There are 5 entries per team, and the match is played in a 3-person, 5-single match (11 points, 5 games) format for both men and women.

China, the ‘powerhouse in table tennis,’ is considered the ‘zero favorite’ for both men and women.

While the Chinese men's and women's national teams have won the team event at the World Championships 22 times, the men's team will attempt to win for the 11th consecutive time and the women's team will attempt to win for the 6th time in a row in this competition.

In the women's division, Japan is the most likely opponent for China in the finals, featuring Sun Yingsha (1st place), Wang Yidi (2nd place), and Chen Meng (3rd place).

Japan, ranked second in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) team rankings, is a powerhouse that has attempted to 'attack the Great Wall of China' by advancing to the finals four times in a row, from the 2014 Tokyo Tournament held in its country to the most recent 2022 Chengdu Tournament.

Japan, led by Hayata Hina, who has penetrated the gaps between China's strongest players and climbed to 5th place in the singles rankings, as well as Mima Ito (10th place) and Miu Hirano (18th place), is recognized as China's opponent in this tournament as well.

In addition, Korea, led by the 'one-two punch' of Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) and Jeon Ji-hee (Mirae Asset Securities), takes on a bold 'golden challenge' at the home table.

Korean women's table tennis defeated Japan, the favorite for the title, at the 1973 Sarajevo Tournament, achieving world domination for the first time in the history of Korean ball sports.

Then, at the 1991 Chiba Games, Korea, a unified North-South team, defeated China, which was confident of its 9th consecutive victory, and won its second gold medal.

Korean women's table tennis, which had been in a slump since the 2010s, is currently on the rebound as Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee continue to perform well on the international stage.

Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee, who performed well on the World Table Tennis (WTT) stage, gave Korea their first table tennis gold medal in 21 years in the women's doubles at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held last year.

Although the format and scale of the game are different from this World Championships, it is clear that morale has increased by accumulating memories of victory.

Here, Eunhye Lee (66th place, Korean Air), Si On Lee (46th place, Samsung Life Insurance), and Hyobin Yoon (159th place, Mirae Asset Securities) add their strength.

Except for the 2018 Halmstad Tournament, where it won a bronze medal as the second North and South Korean unified team, Korean women's table tennis has not won a prize for 12 years since the 2012 Dortmund Tournament.

Although it has been somewhat overshadowed by the public popularity of Shin Yu-bin and Jeon Ji-hee recently, the Korean men's national team has consistently produced better results than the women's national team.

The men's national team won six consecutive awards (4 bronze and 2 silver) from the 2001 Osaka Games to the 2012 Dortmund Games.

He was then eliminated in the quarterfinals at the 2014 Tokyo Games, but he won three times in a row (3 bronze) from the 2016 Kuala Lumpur Games to the 2022 Chengdu Games held immediately before.

In this competition, Jang Woo-jin (14th) and Lim Jong-hoon (18th, Korea Exchange) are leading the way, while 'veteran' Lee Sang-soo (27th, Samsung Life Insurance) and Ahn Jae-hyeon (34th, Korea Exchange), who are difficult to stop once they get into the flow. ), and ‘promising star’ Park Gyu-hyun (179th, Mirae Asset Securities) follows behind.

In order for Korean men's table tennis to win its first ever championship, it appears that it will have to overcome 'the strongest China'.

China's team consisted of players ranked 1st to 5th in the world, including Pan Zhendong (1st), Wang Chuqin (2nd), Ma Rong (3rd), Liang Jingkun (4th), and Lin Gaoyuan (5th).

It would be no surprise at all to call the men's table tennis team the 'Avengers'.

Among them, Ma Long, a veteran who is now 35 years old, holds a total of 12 gold medals in all events at the World Championships.

Among them, there are 7 gold medals in the team event.

Marung's 12 gold medals are a record tied with Japan's 'legend' Ichiro Ogimura, who enjoyed his heyday in the 1950s and 1960s and even served as ITTF president as an administrator in the 1980s.

If Ma Lung adds gold in this competition, he will become Asia's most World Championship gold medal holder.

Ma Long is also the ‘spiritual leader’ of the Chinese men’s national team.

To crack the Great Wall, you have to destroy Ma Long.

If a match between Korea and China takes place in the tournament, attention is expected to be focused on Lee Sang-soo's racket, which caused a stir by defeating Ma Long at the 2012 Incheon Korea Open.

However, Lee Sang-su fought Ma Rung eight times and lost seven times.

‘Ace’ Jang Woo-jin also has a record of 3 losses against Ma Long.

It is difficult to deny the absolute inferiority, but a 'reversal drama' may unfold at BEXCO with the support of the home crowd.

Originally, the first World Table Tennis Championships in Korea was scheduled to be held in 2020, but in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), the hosting period was repeatedly postponed and eventually canceled, and the Korean table tennis community and Busan City again entered into a bid to host this tournament. done.

At the same time, the meaning of commemorating the '100th anniversary of Korean table tennis' was added.

The Korean table tennis world considers the 'Ping Pong Tournament' held by the Gyeongseong Daily Newspaper in January 1924 as the beginning of Korean table tennis.