Seiya
Kishikawa and Yoon Jae Young headed for Beijing Olympics
Tactically
Seiya Kishikawa could not have played better in his
match to defeat the defender Jang Song Man and in some
big points the rallies were even spectacular. Both
defensive and attacking tactics employed by the North
Korean Jang could not find a hole in the Japanese player
who was determined to join his team mate in Beijing and
give Japan a great chance to even play the team’s event
at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Kishikawa
lead from the beginning of the match and at the
beginning of each game he built a lead sufficient for
him to win. A good day for the Japanese, with all
players attending in Korea all gaining qualification
positions.
In the 2nd
match between Chinese Taipei’s Chiang Peng Lung and
Korea’s Yoon Jae Young it was a much closer tussle. In
the beginning it seemed like Chiang would win easily
after he raced away with a 3 games to 0 lead. Then
however, somewhere in the 4th game, with
perhaps Chiang feeling he had things sown up the tide
started to swing. The Korean Yoon Jae Young took the
next three games and you could feel the pressure mount
for both players. For Yoon it was perhaps maybe even a
surprise he was here but had won his place by defeating
the more highly ranked Joo Se Hyuk in their national
qualification to be here.
The fourth
game was a tough encounter with long rallies and both
players playing some of the finest table tennis of the
tournament. Joon took the command at the beginning and
at the change of ends had a 5-3 advantage after a
blistering cross court forehand drive. It was then all
the Korean as he took the next 3 points to race to an
8-3 advantage. Finally taking the match and the 6th
Olympic Qualification position 11 – 5.
Chiang and Jang now need to hope they can find something
to qualify for the last position which will be played
tomorrow on Sunday the 9th of March.
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