Korean National Table Tennis Team Advances to Semifinals with Three Medals in 2023 World Championships

The Korean national team, which competed in the men’s and women’s doubles quarterfinals, won all of them on May 25 (local time) and succeeded in advancing to the semifinals of the 2023 World Table Tennis Championships, securing three medals.

There will be no bronze medal match at this event, and bronze medals will be awarded to all losing teams and players in the semifinals.

The pair Jeon Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin won 3-0 (11-9, 15-13, 11-14) against Sofia Polcanova of Austria and Bernadette Soetz of Romania in the women’s doubles quarterfinals, and settled in the semifinals.

The medal that Jin Ji-hee and Shin Yu-bin will wear is the first feat in Korean women’s table tennis history in 12 years since Kim Kyung-ah and Park Mi-young won the bronze medal in women’s doubles at the 2011 World Championships.

Following the women’s doubles, Jang Woo-jin-Lim Jong-hun and Jo Dae-sung-Lee Sang-su both advanced to the men’s doubles semifinals.

Woo-Jin Jang and Jong-Hoon Lim made it to the finals at the Houston Championships two years ago and challenged for the first men’s doubles gold medal in Korean table tennis history, but they were blocked by Sweden’s Christian Carlsson-Mathias Falk duo and had to settle for the silver medal.

Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon are trying to renew their world championship men’s doubles record in two years.

Cho Dae-sung-Lee Sang-soo Joe defeated the 2021 men’s doubles champion Carlson-Matias Joe 3-1 (11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 11-9), and confirmed the semi-finals.

Meanwhile, in the men’s and women’s singles round of 16, the national team again realized the high wall between the People’s Republic of China and Japan, and had to stop challenging.

Yubin Shin lost 0-4 (6-11, 8-11, 8-11, 5-11) to World No. 1 Sun Yingxia in women’s singles, and her eldest sister Seo Hyo-won also played a game against Japan’s Hina Hayata, 13 years younger than her. They failed to bring it and finished at 0-4 (5-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-8).

In the men’s round of 16, Lim Jong-hoon was overpowered by table tennis legend Maronge 0-4 (7-11, 5-11, 3-11, 6-11), and Jang Woo-jin was also caught by Anders Lind of Denmark and defeated 1-4 (11-11). 7, 7-11, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6).