by Simon Daish
The well renowned duo of Lee Sangsu and Jeoung Youngsik will provide much-needed experience to the team with some of the country’s younger talents Jang Woojin, Kim Donghyun and Lim Jonghoon also featuring in an exciting line-up for Korea Republic.
There are reasons for the Korean camp to be encouraged heading into the World Team Championships especially with the form of Lee Sangsu following his terrific bronze medal outing at the Lion 31st ITTF-ATTU Asian Cup Yokohama 2018 earlier in the month.
Lee Sangsu has proved a worthy adversary for some of China’s strongest players over the past year with victories over Zhang Jike, Xu Xin and Lin Gaoyuan over the course of 2017 and could be the key to Korean success in Halmstad.
Last time out at the World Team Championships held two years ago in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, Korea Republic achieved a commendable third position finish and there was yet more success one year later at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF-Asian Championships in Wuxi, China where the team secured the runner up prize in the Men’s Championship Division.
Korea Republic has also enjoyed a positive start to this year, narrowly losing out to second seeds Japan in the semi-finals of the 2018 ITTF Team World Cup but coming away from the event in London with a bronze medal in the Men’s Team competition.
Plenty of good omens for Korea Republic leading up to this year’s World Team Championships – can they mount a serious challenge for the title? Germany and Japan look the most likely to cause defending champions China any sort of problems but the Korean squad could also be in the picture.
