“It’s ridiculous, we give 120 per cent and they give 150 per cent.”
Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon (KEUR) were devastated after failing to cross the ‘Great Wall’ in the Asian Games final.
The Korean pair of Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon lost 0-4 to China’s Pan Zhen-dong and Wang Chuqin in the men’s doubles final of the table tennis event at the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games at the Archer Canal Sports Park Gymnasium in Hangzhou, China, on Monday.
Jang Woo-jin and Lim Jong-hoon played well on the day. There were no unforced errors and their attacks were fierce.
Nevertheless, Fan Zhendong and Wang Chuqin were impregnable. They blocked most of the attacks, and even made some unassailable shots.
“If I made a mistake and lost, I would be in tears, but they (the Chinese players) play table tennis so well that it makes me feel cool,” said Lim Jong-hoon, who met with reporters in the joint press area above the match.
In table tennis doubles, the serve is supposed to be delivered diagonally, and Lim said he even considered “pretending to be crazy” on that day and delivering the serve head-on to confuse his opponent.
Still, it has paid off.
They reached back-to-back finals at the World Championships in Houston in 2021 and Durban in 2023, winning silver medals. No South Korean male table tennis player has ever achieved this feat.
At the Asian Games, they became the first South Korean men’s team to reach the final in 21 years, winning a silver medal.
It was enough to make them the best doubles team in Korean table tennis history.
However, there are calls for a change in the doubles team, so we may not see them together as often in the future.
Of course, they have been an undisputed must-win pairing, reaching the top of the doubles world rankings, so there is still an argument to be made that it would be better to keep them as the centrepiece and vary the doubles strategy a little bit in preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
In any case, for the time being, the pair will focus on singles, so it’s ‘goodbye’ for now. At the World Team Championships in Busan next February, each country will compete in singles only.
“I’m a little less skilled than Woojin, but my brother guided me a lot,” says Lim Jong-hoon. Thanks to him, my skills have improved a lot,” he said with tears in his eyes.
Jang Woo-jin said, “I’ve been playing major tournaments with Jong-hoon for a long time, and this time we had the best chemistry. I think we’ve figured out how to play our best,” he said, expressing his excitement for their ‘future’ together. 무료슬롯게임