South Korea defeats Austria 3-1
August 18, 2008
South Korea took down Austria on Monday 3-1 to receive the honor of the bronze medal in the men’s team table tennis competition. In an interesting twist the beginning of the competition began in favor of Austria with Robert Gardos (world ranked No. 47) taking down the defending gold medalist Ryu Seung Min of Korea 3-1.
However, in the true spirit of the games Ryu found himself in position to make amends for his major disappointment earlier with a chance to win the competition for his team in the fourth match vs. Chen Weixing of Austria. He found his stride with strong top-spin loops and smashing forehands that earned Korea the bronze in three straight games.
The Austrians played strong and fought a hard battle agaist the Koreans, not giving up their hopes at a first Olympic medal easily. The Austrians challenged the Koreans until the end led by former world champion Werner Schlager. South Korea’s Sang-eun got them off to a great start by beating Schlager 3-1 followed by a strong match by Robert Gardos besting Ryu in four sets.
“I didn’t play at my peak level but this is human you know, “ said Schlager following the match. However they were proud of the fact that they came in fourth, being the best result for the Austrians in Olympic table tennis history.
Ryu played very poorly overall in the Olympics being a returning champ in particular. He went into the bronze final on Monday having had won only two of his six singles matches. Thankfully Ryu was backed by a strong team with dominating performances, especially his teammate Oh Sang-eun who has only lost to world’s No 2 Ma Lin of China.
