Korea Settles for Silver Again
By Kang Seung-woo
Staff Reporter
The South Korean men's table tennis team won a silver medal Monday (KST) at the biennial World Team Cup in Linz, Austria.
In the final of the eight-nation tournament, the No. 2 seeded squad of Joo Se-hyuk, Oh Sang-eun and Ryu Seung-min suffered a 3-0 shutout loss to defending champion China.
The defeat is yet another setback in Korea's attempt to take down its nemesis.
South Korea has not beaten China since 1990, when it claimed a gold medal at the Beijing Asian Games after beating the host country.
The Yoo Nam-kyu-coached side, a semifinalist in the 2007 event, downed host Austria and third-ranked Germany on its way to the championship match, but it came up short against the rebuilding Chinese team.
China sent Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Xu Xin in place of world No. 1 Wang Hao and Beijing Olympic champion Ma Lin.
Oh, ranked 11th, fell to No. 19 Zhang 11-3, 11-7, 11-8 and Joo was ousted by Ma 11-3, 11-3, 7-11, 11-8.
In the doubles, Ryu and Oh faced a Xu-Ma pair but were blanked 11-6, 11-5, 11-5 to settle for second place.
On the women's side, China thrashed Singapore 3-0 to repeat as champions.
The Korean women's team was not invited to participate in the contest due to their low ranking, 11th.