by Simon Daish

Lee Sangsu rounded off his 2016 campaign at the 70th National Men’s and Women’s Table Tennis Championships in Incheon and when asked about his standout moment of the year the Korean player said, “The Olympics are the most memorable, I am going to the army because of the Olympics… (laughs)”.

Wednesday 17th August 2016 saw Lee Sangsu and his Korea Republic teammates suffer a 1-3 loss to Germany in the Rio 2016 Men’s Team bronze medal match, while Lee Sangsu exited in the third round of the Men’s Singles category to Romania’s Adrian Crișan.

Despite Korea Republic missing out on achieving a medal podium finish at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, having won the Men’s Team silver medal four years earlier at London 2012, 26-year-old Lee Sangsu believes that the experience of the 2016 Olympic Games will act as an important learning curve for his Table Tennis career.

“The Olympic Games have become a turning point for my Table Tennis. I realized many things and I think a lot while practicing”, Lee Sangsu.

Medal winning athletes competing at Rio 2016 for Korea Republic were provided with an exemption from otherwise mandatory national service. However, while Lee Sangsu and his fellow compatriots may have missed out on a third place finish in the Table Tennis event at the 2016 Olympic Games he is feeling optimistic about his future prospects in the sport moving forward.

“… The final goal is to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games. I want to play Table Tennis for a long time… “, Lee Sangsu.