HANGZHOU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — Host China showcased its prowess in desk tennis, securing six out of seven gold medals on the Hangzhou Asian Games, whereas paddlers from different international locations and areas together with South Korea, Japan, Iran, and India additionally made their mark on the sector.
China’s males’s and ladies’s groups effortlessly triumphed over all opponents with a 3-0 rating to win two gold medals, sustaining China’s unshakeable dominance in crew occasions.
Wang Chuqin, the 23-year-old world No. 2, clinched 4 gold medals within the males’s crew, males’s singles, males’s doubles, and blended doubles classes.
“The competition about who will go to the Paris Olympic Games are still fierce within Team China. Only the most powerful athletes can get a chance, so I must work harder,” Wang stated after he captured his first males’s singles Asiad title.
World No. 1 Sun Yingsha, garnered three gold medals in girls’s crew, girls’s singles, and blended doubles, however fell quick in girls’s double with Wang Manyu through the quarterfinals.
“I undertook more responsibility in Team China. Perhaps I will play three or four events in one day, so we were trained to change the thoughts and methods in different events,” 22-year-old Sun stated after defeating Japan’s Hina Hayata to say her first girls’s singles Asiad title.
China’s veteran Ma Long, who has competed in 4 Asian Games, led China to its eighth consecutive males’s desk tennis crew title at Hangzhou Asian Games.
“Maybe this is the last time for me to be on the stage of Asian Games,” he stated, including that he was happy together with his efficiency.
South Korean duo Jeon Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin secured the ladies’s doubles title, marking South Korea’s first in desk tennis on the Asian Games since 2002.
Jeon and Shin triumphed over the DPR Korean pair Cha Su Yong and Pak Su Gyong within the closing, and bested Japanese gamers Miwa Harimoto and Miyuu Kihara within the semifinals.
“This may be my last international-level competition. I want to express my gratitude to my partner; we have great cooperation,” remarked Jeon.
Harimoto, 15, showcased her expertise in Hangzhou, regardless of a 3-1 loss in opposition to world No. 3 Wang Manyu within the crew occasion. She, along with Kihara, overcame Chinese pair Sun and Wang Manyu in girls’s doubles, bringing Japan a crew silver and a doubles bronze in her Asian Games debut.
The Iranian males’s crew staged the largest shock of the marketing campaign, dismantling second-seeded Japan 3-0 within the quarterfinals, earlier than Nima Alamian Darounkolaei and Noshad Alamiyan Darounkolaei shocked Japanese Taisei Matsushita and Mizuki Oikawa 3-0 in males’s doubles quarterfinals to bag two bronzes.
Indian girls’s duo Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherjee beat Chinese pair Chen Meng and Wang Yidi to safe India’s first girls’s doubles bronze medal in desk tennis at Asiad.
“The Asian Games are a celebration of excellence in sports. Table tennis is truly thriving on this wonderful stage, and I want to extend my congratulations to the organizing committee and China for showcasing table tennis as a dynamic and thrilling sport that has captivated audiences. Together, we are committed to ensuring that table tennis continues to thrive in Asia and globally,” Petra Sorling, president of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), stated about her Hangzhou go to.