Shin Yoo-bin (Korean Air) and Jeon Jeon-hee (Mirae Asset Securities) won the ‘North-South Showdown’ and gave Korean table tennis its first Asian Games gold medal in 21 years.
The pair defeated North Korea’s Cha Sooyoung and Park Soo Kyong (unranked) 4-1 (11-6 11-4 10-12 12-10 11-3) in the women’s table tennis doubles final at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Gungsu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China on 2 February.
Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee became the first South Korean pair to win an Asian Games gold medal in 21 years.
It is the first time a South Korean pair has won a gold medal at an Asian Games since Lee Chul-seung and Lee Seung-min in men’s doubles and Seok Eun-mi and Lee Eun-sil in women’s doubles at the 2002 Busan Games.
Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee won their first Asian Games gold medals at an international event.
After winning the women’s doubles gold medal at the Asian Championships in Doha in 2021, they once again proved that they are the best doubles pair in the world.
Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee were fortunate to reach the final without facing a single Chinese player as the ‘strongest’ Chinese pairs were all eliminated in the quarter-finals.
However, it was their ‘skill’ that made them win the final, which came with the heavy burden of a ‘North-South clash’.
It has been 33 years since the men’s team event at the 1990 Beijing Games that North and South Korea have met in the final of an Asian Games table tennis event.
It was also the first North-South final meeting across all sports at the Games.
Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee rewrote Korean table tennis history by seizing a rare opportunity.
With an advantage in both strength and speed, Jeon and Shin sprinted to gold from game one.
The North Koreans took game three and looked set to turn the tide, but the duo took game four in a deuce tiebreak to regain control.
The duo raced to a 5-0 lead in the fifth game to seal the victory.
With this victory, Korean table tennis successfully concluded the tournament with a total of eight medals, including one gold (women’s doubles), two silver (men’s team and men’s doubles) and five bronze (women’s team, two mixed doubles, women’s singles and men’s singles).
This is the highest medal tally since the 2002 Busan Games, when the team won eight medals, including two golds.
The ‘Flower of Table Tennis’ won the men’s singles gold medal with Wang Chuqin (2nd, China).
Wang Chuqin defeated world number one Pan Jeon-dong in the final of the men’s singles event in a full-game thriller, winning 4-3 (10-12 12-10 13-11 7-11 11-4 7-11 11-8).
Wang Chuqin, who had earlier won gold in the men’s team event, mixed doubles and men’s doubles, now has four titles at the Games.
Wang Chuqin, who has been touted as China’s “next ace,” has now overtaken Fan Zhendong as the country’s “ace.
China won six of the seven gold medals in table tennis at the Games, reaffirming its status as the ‘superpower’. 파워볼분석