Shin Yu-bin and Im Jong-hun fail to cross the Great Wall... Table tennis mixed doubles, painful comeback loss to China secures 'back-to-back bronze medals' [Aichi Nagoya AG]

*This content was translated by AI.

The table tennis mixed doubles pair of world No. 1 Im Jong-hun (Korea Exchange) and Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) secured back-to-back bronze medals at the Asian Games for the second consecutive tournament.

On the 25th, Im Jong-hun and Shin Yu-bin suffered a comeback loss to the Chinese pair Lin Shidong-Kwai Man (China, ranked 6th) in the mixed doubles semifinals of the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games held at Sky Hall Toyota in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, with a score of 2-4 (11-9, 8-11, 11-7, 9-11, 10-12, 3-11). Since there is no separate third-place match for table tennis, South Korea secured the bronze medal.

The two athletes, who had showcased their world No. 1 status by sweeping victories at WTT Ljubljana and US Smash this year in addition to winning a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, aimed for the first-ever Asian Games mixed doubles gold medal but were once again blocked by the wall of China.

South Korea overcame four consecutive points conceded early in the first game, mounted a fierce comeback to win, and then secured the third game to build momentum. However, after losing the fourth game, they lost the decisive fifth game 10-12 in a tense deuce battle, completely surrendering control, and then helplessly dropped the sixth game as well, swallowing their disappointment.

Meanwhile, Shin Yu-bin is currently on a winning streak in both women's singles and doubles. After defeating Indonesia's Citra Rasmie 4-0 in the round of 32, she will face Kazakhstan's Zhaurei Akaseba in the round of 16 on the 26th.

Shin Yu-bin, the gold medalist in women's doubles at the Hangzhou Games, teamed up with new partner Ju Cheon-hee (Samsung Life) for this tournament and defeated an Indonesian pair 3-1 in the round of 16 to advance to the quarterfinals, where she will face a Thai pair.

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*This content was translated by AI.