The Korean table tennis team departed through Incheon International Airport on the night of the 15th to compete in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Championships.
The 2023 World Table Tennis Championships Finals will be held in Durban, South Africa (ICC Durban) from the 20th to the 28th.
The ITTF organizes the World Championships every year by dividing them into team and individual events.
Last year, the team finals were held in Chengdu, China. The solo exhibition was held in Houston, Texas, USA in 2021, and this time it will be held in South Africa.메이저사이트
At the 2021 World Championships, men’s doubles Jang Woo-jin (Army Sports Corps) and Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) won a silver medal.
▲ Jang Woo-jin (left) and Lim Jong-hoon
However, he failed to win a medal in the singles event, and Seo Hyo-won (Korea Racing Association) advanced to the women’s quarterfinals and Lim Jong-hoon advanced to the men’s round of 16. In the women’s doubles, Lee Si-on (Samsung Life Insurance) and Choi Hyo-joo (Korea Racing Association) advanced to the quarterfinals.
The Korean national team consisted of a total of 12 players. In the men’s division, Lim Jong-hoon, Jang Woo-jin, Lee Sang-soo (Samsung Life Insurance), Ahn Jae-hyeon (Korea Exchange), and Cho Seung-min (Samsung Life Insurance) will compete. In the women’s division, Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air), Jeon Ji-hee (Mirae Asset Securities), Seo Hyo-won, Choi Hyo-joo (Korea Racing Association), and Lee Si-on (Samsung Life Insurance) will participate.
Jang Woo-jin-Lim Jong-hoon, Lee Sang-soo-Cho Dae-seong, Shin Yu-bin-Jeon Ji-hee, and Lee Si-on-Choi Hyo-joo will challenge the men’s and women’s doubles. In the mixed doubles, Lim Jong-hun and Shin Yu-bin and Jo Dae-seong and Kim Na-young are aiming for medals. Cho Dae-seong (Samsung Life Insurance) and Kim Na-yeong (POSCO International) play only in doubles. Lim Jong-hun (11th) and Shin Yu-bin (26th), who are the highest ranked Korean male and female players, will compete in all three events.
▲ Shin Yubin
Seung-min Yoo, president of the Korea Table Tennis Association, who is also an executive member of the ITTF, receives the ‘Egypt Cup’ once again at the closing ceremony of this tournament. The Egypt Cup, which is alternately kept by the host countries of the world competition, is a symbol of friendship and glory for table tennis players around the world. The Egypt Cup, which was received in Budapest in 2019 but had to be returned without being able to compete, is already approaching with a special sense of weight.
The World Championships, which will be held in South Africa, will be held in Africa for the first time in 84 years. Africa has been considered a relatively barren country for table tennis compared to Asia and Europe. The 1939 tournament in Cairo, Egypt was the only world event ever held in Africa.
Joo Se-hyeok and Oh Kwang-heon, coaches of the men’s and women’s national teams, pledged, “As the host country of next year’s World Cup, we desperately need tangible achievements that can continue the atmosphere. We will do our best together with the players with a sense of responsibility.”
▲ Korea Table Tennis Team ⓒ Korea Table Tennis Association
Korea competes with China and Japan, the ‘world’s strongest’, for medals. The men’s and women’s singles are expected to be swept by Chinese players. Korea aims for medals in men’s and women’s doubles and mixed doubles with Lim Jong-hun and Shin Yu-bin.
The individual singles round of this tournament is a round of 128, and the doubles round of 64 is a tournament. All events are played on a knock-out system where even one match is eliminated.
The mixed doubles will decide the champion first on the 26th. The men’s and women’s doubles will be held on the 27th, and the men’s and women’s singles finals will be held on the 28th.
Meanwhile, TV channels SPOTV and SPOTV ON, and sports OTT service SPOTV NOW will broadcast live satellite matches of the 2023 ITTF World Table Tennis Championships. It will also be broadcast live on SPOTV ASIA (Spotv Asia). Sporty Asia is a channel broadcasting to 13 countries in Southeast Asia and broadcasts tennis grand slam tournaments such as Wimbledon and US Open, men’s professional tennis ATP tour, motorcycle racing competition MotoGP (GP), WTT (World Table Tennis) table tennis competition, and BWF ( World Badminton Federation) badminton competition, International Sports Climbing (IFSC), Sports Climbing World Cup, etc. are provided.