Zhao’s silver medal in the women’s doubles at the World Table Tennis Championships is heavier and more valuable than the gold.

The world No. 12 women’s doubles team of Xin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee fell 0-3 (8-11 7-11 10-12) to China’s Wang Yidi and Chen Meng in the final of the tournament, which concluded in Durban, South Africa, on Monday (Aug. 28). The pair had upset the world No. 1 pair of Sun Yingxia-Wang Manyu (CHN) in the quarterfinals a day earlier, but could no longer cross the Great Wall.

However, the pair combined to win the women’s singles and doubles titles for the first time in 30 years since Hyun Jung-hwa won the singles title in Gothenburg in 1993. The women’s doubles final itself was the first time in 36 years since Yang Young-ja and Hyun Jung-hwa won in New Delhi in 1987. This silver medal is well deserved.

The silver medal was achieved after overcoming their own obstacles in the face of adversity. Shin Yubin, the “table tennis prodigy,” emerged as a surprise star at the Tokyo Olympics but fell into a long slump after withdrawing from the World Championships in November that year with a stress fracture in her wrist. Early last year, she competed with pins in her wrist, but the pain returned and she underwent additional surgery to remove bone fragments. Despite this, Shin continued to work on her body. Her shots are now heavier than before, thanks to her consistent weight training.

Zheng’s story is even more dramatic. He naturalized in China in 2009 and was first called up to the national team two years later, but apart from a bronze medal in the team event at the 2018 Worlds, he spent 12 years watching Chinese athletes he considered to be behind him win major awards. A knee injury plagued him last year, but he rebounded after moving to Kim’s Mirae Asset Securities in December last year. After grueling training, he eventually won a silver medal at the Worlds in half a year.

Shin Yubin and Jeon Jeon-hee, who are rivals in singles but have been playing together since 2019, have become a stimulus for each other in doubles.메이저사이트

Meanwhile, the men’s doubles team of Jang Woo-jin (Mirae Asset Securities) and Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) won silver and Cho Dae-sung and Lim Sang-soo (Samsung Life Insurance) won bronze to end the tournament with two silver and one bronze medal. It is the first time in 20 years that Korea has won more than three medals at an individual World Championships since Paris 2003.