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Joint inter-Korea team wins mixed doubles at Korea Open
SEOUL, July 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A joint table tennis team from the two
Koreas on Saturday won the final in mixed doubles at the Korea Open, claiming
the first gold in the latest instalment of sporting diplomacy on the
peninsula.
Jang Woo-jin, a male player from the South, and Cha Hyo Sim, a female
player from the North, defeated China 3-1 at the mixed doubles final at the
international tournament held in the South’s city of Daejeon.
It was the first gold medal won by an inter-Korea sports team in nearly
three decades after a women’s joint table tennis team scored a shock victory
over reigning champion China in the world championship in Japan in 1991.
The Chinese pair of Wang Chuqin and Sun Yinsha won the first set 11-5
before the Korean team thrashed them 11-3, 11-4 and 11-8 in consecutive sets
as some South Korean fans chanted in unison “We are one!”
“I really wanted to win this game… and the cheers from the crowd gave me
goosebumps,” Jang told reporters after the game. The
“I saw Hyo Sim crying during the ceremony and it broke my heart that we
have to say goodbye soon,” he said.
All civilian communication between the two countries — which remain
technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice
instead of a peace treaty — is banned. But North Korea’s decision to
participate in the Winter Olympics in the South last February triggered an
ongoing rapprochement between the two nations.
Athletes from the two Koreas marched together behind a unification flag at
the Games’ opening ceremony, while the South’s President Moon Jae-in seized
the opportunity to broker talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
Moon also held a summit with the North’s leader Kim Jong Un in April,
during which the two men vowed to strengthen cooperation in sports.
The two Koreas have often used sports to break ice on the volatile inter-
Korea relations — by forming joint teams for international competitions from
soccer to ice hockey.
Eight female and eight male table tennis players from the North, including
Kim Song I — a bronze medalist at women’s singles at the 2016 Rio Summer
Games — competed in the Korea Open, some jointly with Seoul’s players.
Four joint teams — men’s and women’s doubles as well as two mixed doubles
— were formed. The men’s doubles team won bronze on Friday.
The two Koreas also recently announced they would field joint teams in
three sports — canoeing, rowing and women’s basketball — at next month’s
Asian Games to be held in Indonesia.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1502 hrs