An agonising fourth place in the Men’s Singles event at the London 2012 Olympic Games, Chuang Chih-Yuan was the hero for Chinese Taipei in their quarter-final Men’s Team clash against Hong Kong at the Asian Championships in the Korean city of Busan on Monday 1^st July 2013.

He beat Tang Peng (3-11, 12-10, 11-7, 11-5) and with the scores in the fixture level at two matches apiece, he accounted for Jiang Tianyi (11-4, 8-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-8) to steer his team to a thrilling three-two victory.

The one further win for Chinese Taipei came from Huang Sheng-Sheng in the third match of the contest against Wong Chun Ting (7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-9).

Good form from Chuang Chih-Yuan and Huang Sheng-Sheng but it was not the best of form from Chen Chien-An.

He was beaten in the second match of the fixture by Jiang Tianyi (12-10, 11-5, 10-12, 11-2) and in the fourth contest of the encounter by Tang Peng (11-4, 11-8, 11-3).

A close call for Chinese Taipei but not for China, Korea or Japan; all three booked their places in the semi-finals by recording resounding three-nil quarter-final victories.

China represented by Ma Long, Fan Zhendong and Yan An accounted for the Indian trio of Soumyajit Ghosh, Sharath Kamal Achanta and Amalraj Anthony; whilst Korea with Lee Sangsu, Seo Hyundeok and Jung Youngsik in action defeated the Singaporean outfit formed by Gao Ning, Yang Zi and Clarence Chew.

Similarly, not to be outdone, Japan represented by Jun Mizutani, Kenta Matsudaira and Seiya Kishikawa halted the aspirations of Iran. They fielded the triumvirate of Mohammedreza Akhlaghpasand, Noshad Alamiyan and Nima Alamiyan.

At the semi-final stage, China meets Korea, Chinese Taipei confronts Japan.

In both the Men’s and Women’s Team events, play takes place in a series of stages; the teams finishing in the first six places at the Asian Championships staged in Macau in 2012, enter the quarter-final directly.

The remaining teams compete for the two available places by first competing in a group phase and then a qualification round.

In the Men’s Team event there were four groups with first places being secured by: India (Soumyajit Ghosh, Sharath Kamal Achanta, Sanil Shetty, Harmeet Desai, Amalraj Anthony), Iran (Mohammedreza Akhlaghpasand, Noshad Alamiyan, Nima Alamiyan, Hamidreza Taherkhani), Thailand (Chaisit Chaitat, Nikom Wongsiri, Suchat Pitakgulsiri, Padasak Tanviriyavechakul) and Vietnam (Duong Van Nam, Tran Tuan Quynh, Dao Duy Huang, Dinh Quang Linh, Doan Ba Tuan Arch).

In the play-off matches, Iran with Noshad Alamiyan, Nima Alamiyan and Mohammedreza Akhlaghpasand in action overcame Thailand’s Padasak Tanviriyavechakul, Nikom Wonsiri, Suchat Pitagulsiri) by three matches to nil; whilst at the same stage and by the same margin it was success for India.

Soumyajit Ghosh, Sharath Kamal Achanta and Amalraj Anthony showed no charity when facing their Vietnamese adversaries in the guise of Tran Tuan Quynh, Donh Quang Linh and Duong Van Nam; a three-nil win was duly posted.

Article By: ITTF - Ian Marshall

Photo By: Steve Parkin