Lim Jong-hoon, Ahn Jae-hyun win Asian Table Tennis men's doubles gold
Lim Jong-hoon, Ahn Jae-hyun win Asian Table Tennis men's doubles gold
Blog Article
Lim Jong-hoon and Ahn Jae-hyun (above, Korea Exchange) gave Korean table tennis its first men's doubles gold medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in 32 years.
The duo defeated Singapore's Fang Yuen Koen and Izik Kwok 3-0 (11-6 11-16 11-6) in the men's doubles final on Day 6 of the 2024 Asian Table Tennis Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Wednesday (June 13).
Lim Jong-hoon and Ahn Jae-hyun became the first South Korean pair to win the title in 32 years and the second in history, after Lee Chul-seung and Kang Hee-chan at the 1992 New Delhi Games.
South Korea has been a consistent top-four finisher in this event, but hasn't had much luck with gold.
At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Lim won bronze in mixed doubles with Shin Yoo-bin (copyright) and continued his strong showing on the international stage.
The pair defeated Kazakhstan in the round of 16, 토토사이트 Hong Kong's Wong Chun-ting and Baldwin Chan in the quarterfinals, and Japan's Sunsuke Togami and Hiroto Shinozuka in the semifinals to reach the final.
The top-seeded Chinese pair of Ling Gaoyuan and Lin Shidong were the lucky ones, as they were upset by the Malaysian pair, and the favorites, Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto and Sora Matsushima, were upset by Singapore.
In the final, the duo relentlessly pushed the inferior Singaporeans and seized the opportunity to win a title that would be hard to come by again.
Lim and Ahn are alumni of Daejeon's prestigious Dongsan High School and have been playing together as a doubles team since their school days. Lim Jong-hoon is two years his senior.
They teamed up again in the unemployment stage last year when Lim moved to the Korea Exchange from Jeonggwanjang, and won the unemployment table tennis championship in their first year.
They have also performed well on the international stage, winning two World Table Tennis (WTT) Contender titles last year, and then combined for a gold medal at the Asian Championships.
Earlier in the tournament, Korea won bronze in the men's team event and bronze in the mixed doubles event (Shin Yoo-bin and Lim Jong-hoon).
On the final day of competition, Jun Sung “Young Gun” Oh (Mirae Asset Securities) will continue his quest for gold in the men's singles.
The day before, Oh had already clinched the bronze medal with a 3-1 (11-8 2-11 11-8 11-6) upset of world No. 1 Wang Chuqin (CHN) to reach the semifinals.
Oh will take on Japanese powerhouse Harimoto in the semifinals at 3:20 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
If he wins, he will face the winner of the Lin Shui-Dong-Shinozuka match for the gold medal.
Lee Sang-soo (Samsung Life Insurance) won the men's singles title in Doha in 2021, the only time a South Korean player has won the Asian Championships.
However, China did not compete in the 2021 event due to the COVID-19 pandemic.