OLYMPICS/ Tears flow after women’s table tennis team wins bronze medal
By DAISUKE MAEDA/ Staff Writer
August 17, 2016 at 15:00 JST
Asahi.com より
RIO DE JANEIRO--With a reputation of crying after losses, Ai Fukuhara was determined to maintain her composure as captain of the women’s table tennis team to prevent her younger teammates from panicking.
Fukuhara, 27, ended up bawling again--but this time in victory.
Japan defeated Singapore to win the team bronze medal at the Rio Olympics on Aug. 16.
After Mima Ito, 15, won her singles match 3-0 to clinch the medal for Japan, Ai-chan, as Fukuhara is called in her home country, let the tears flow.
“Whether we won or lost, I felt as captain that I had to control my emotions,” Fukuhara said. “I thought that I would not cry, but in the end, it just came out.”
For Fukuhara, the captain’s position has not been an easy role.
Four years ago, Sayaka Hirano, 31, was the captain who steadied and guided the team to the silver medal at the London Games. Both Fukuhara and current teammate Kasumi Ishikawa, 23, were on that team.
After Hirano retired from competition, Fukuhara was named captain at last year’s Asian championship. But she struggled to find her own way to lead the team and develop the right chemistry.
Fukuhara had always been ambivalent about being the team captain. She admitted that she was more comfortable in the No. 2 position.
Exacerbating the difficulties of forming close bonds was the fact that all three teammates were rivals in the women’s singles competition.
However, during training for the Rio Olympics, her leadership and efforts rubbed off on her two teammates.
Fukuhara lost the fifth and deciding match in the team semifinals against Germany, denying Japan a chance to go for the gold medal.
In a bid to atone for her failure, Fukuhara led off for Japan on Aug. 16 in the bronze medal match, but she lost her singles match to Yu Mengyu, 3-2.
“I am so grateful to everyone because I was only making it difficult for the team,” Fukuhara said.
After the disappointing semifinal defeat, Ishikawa took charge and tried to cheer up Fukuhara and Ito in preparing for the bronze medal match.
“I have been competing against Fukuhara for 10 years now, but I thought that I would try to pick the two of them up by saying something,” Ishikawa said.
Ito also did her part by finding information about their opponents and passing on that data to Fukuhara and Ishikawa.
Ishikawa got the momentum going by sweeping Feng Tianwei in three games. The doubles pair of Fukuhara and Ito then put Japan a step ahead with a 3-1 win over their Singaporean opponents.
Ito defeated Feng, the bronze medalist in women’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics, in three straight games--and the celebrations began.
Winning the bronze was especially meaningful for Ishikawa because she lost her opening match in the singles competition when she was hampered by a leg injury.
“There was, of course, pressure, but I thought about switching my feelings after the loss in the singles, and that allowed the three of us to do our best,” Ishikawa said.
Although Ito is the youngest member of team, she seemed the calmest at times.
After winning the bronze medal match, Ito said: “When I appeared in the fourth match, I was determined that I would decide it, and I am glad I was able to give it my all.
“We had set an objective of winning a medal at all costs, and it was an honor for me to be a part of this team. I am just so glad the three of us were able to win the medal.”
Olympics: Japan headed to men's table tennis final for 1st time
(Mainichi Japan)
RIO DE JANEIRO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese men's table tennis team secured its first Olympic medal with a 3-1 semifinal victory over Germany at the Rio Games on Monday.
Japan is guaranteed of at least silver now, and will face China in Wednesday's final. Jun Mizutani came up big for Japan, beating both former world No. 1 Timo Boll and Bastian Steger 3-0.
Koki Niwa and Maharu Yoshimura, who lost the first singles match to Dimitrij Ovtcharov, won the doubles 3-1 over Boll-Steger.
Mizutani, who won bronze in the singles here at Rio 2016, said he felt compelled to lead Japan by example. Germany coach Jorg Rosskopf described the world's sixth-ranked paddler as "unbelievable" on the afternoon.
"We had a pretty big lead on them so I was sure we'd be okay," Mizutani said. "I wanted to clinch it with the best performance possible -- especially on the last point because it gets picked up a lot on TV."
"When I'm playing for the national team, I'm always trying to win twice. As the ace, I feel like I have to carry the team and I don't want people seeing me lose. It doesn't matter who I'm playing, I want to win."
Japan coach Yosuke Kurashima expects to face two-time defending champion China in the final. While he realizes China will be a tall order, Kurashima is hoping to at least put a chink in its armor.
"Since table tennis became part of the Olympic program in Seoul 1988, the men's had never won a medal," he said. "But here, with Mizutani in the singles and now in the team, we've secured a medal and I couldn't be more satisfied with the effort from the players."
"The pressure will be on China for sure. It will be like trying to thread a needle, but I hope we can produce the best performance ever."
Yoshimura was swept 3-0 by Ovtcharov, the world No. 5 and the highest-ranked non-Chinese player.
"I couldn't play the way I had hoped to in the first match," said Yoshimura, who was outscored 33 to 14 by Ovtcharov. "I must have put a lot of pressure on (Mizutani) but he came through for us. I was pathetic, but (Mizutani) got us back in."
And he did. Mizutani was down by five at one point in the first game, but roared back to win 11-9. He won seven consecutive points to steamroll the German legend in the second game 11-5, and outlasted Boll 12-10 to even the match 1-1.
"I don't have a good track record against Boll. I think I'm 1-14 or 1-15 against him for my career," Mizutani said. "But I was confident I could beat him."
"If I beat him, I was sure the other two would take the momentum into the doubles -- and they did. I could see (Boll's) hand shaking. I felt pretty good about my chances from the first game."
Inspired by Mizutani, Yoshimura and Niwa took the first game and, while the Germans battled to take the second 15-13, recovered to plow through the third and fourth to give Japan a two-matches-to-one lead.
Mizutani was majestic against Steger, never allowing the German the lead and rattling off nine consecutive points in the final game to punch Japan's first-ever ticket to the men's final.
"He played the best of his life," Rosskopf said of Mizutani. "Against Steger, he was unbelievable, very powerful. The Japanese deserved to win."
With the Japanese having secured a place in the final it was down to China to beat South Korea in order to meet them there.
After a strong start with South Korea's Jeoung Young Sik pushing Zhang Jike to five games before Zhang won (13-15, 13-11, 9-11, 11-8, 11-4), the talent difference became obvious.
China walked the final two matches in straight games, with Ma Long particularly brutal in dropping just nine points in his singles match against Joo Sae Hyuk.
Olympics: Japan misses 2nd straight women's table tennis team final
August 15, 2016 (Mainichi Japan)
Ai Fukuhara, center and Mima Ito of Japan, left, look at the ball as Petrissa Solja of Germany serves during their women's team table tennis semifinal match at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Aug. 14, 2016. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
RIO DE JANEIRO (Kyodo) -- The Japanese women's table tennis team missed out on a second successive trip to the Olympic final after being outlasted 3-2 by Germany at the Rio Games on Sunday.
Four of the five matches went to five games and while the Japanese team received a valiant effort from Kasumi Ishikawa, who won twice, it lost the first and last match as well as the doubles.
Japan, which won a silver medal at London 2012, will now play for a bronze on Tuesday against China or Singapore.
Head coach Yasukazu Murakami said 15-year-old Mima Ito's defeat to Petrissa Solja in the first match was the turning point.
"I said yesterday that every match would be close and of the five, the first was crucial," Murakami said. "Mima Ito was up 9-3, and once they came from behind to win that match, they had the momentum. Ishikawa managed to win the second one back for us, but the first match was the difference."
The men's team, after beating Hong Kong 3-1, will try to issue the Germans payback on Monday, when it faces a team featuring world No. 5 Dimitrij Ovtcharov, and the veteran king of German table tennis, Timo Boll.
Germany booked its place in the semifinals with a 3-1 win over Austria.
In the women's semi, Ito led the charge for Japan, splitting the first four games with Solja. In the fifth, Ito was up by six at one point, but Solja won seven straight points to win 12-10, handing Germany the one-match advantage.
Ito, who was clearly sunk after losing to Solja, echoed Murakami's sentiments.
"I was up first and I was ahead. The first match sets the tone for the whole team and it was important. I think it was a huge reason for the loss today," she said.
Second up for Japan was Ishikawa, who quickly fell behind 2-0 to Han Ying.
The prospect of her team falling into a two-match ditch fired up under Ishikawa, as the pride of Yamaguchi Prefecture roared back to sweep the next two games without allowing Han to enjoy a single lead.
Han clawed her way back in the final game, keeping it close, but Ishikawa pounced on the first match point to cap the fight-back.
Ito partnered Ai Fukuhara for the doubles against Solja and Shan Xiaona, which Japan had a 2-1 lead, only for the German pair to capture the final two games to go up two matches to one.
Ishikawa stepped up, sweeping Shan to bring about a fifth match, in which Fukuhara and Han went the distance. In the last game with the score tied 9-9, Fukuhara smashed long to provide Germany match point.
Han's return on the following point caught the edge of the table, denying Japan a likely shot at China in the gold-medal match. Fukuhara beat herself up over the loss.
"I lost both the doubles and the fifth game. I'm the reason we lost today," she said. "I'll let out all my frustrations in the next match."
It was again a struggle, but the Japanese men managed to reach the semifinal at the expense of Hong Kong.
With Zhang, Xu Xin and Ma being three of the top four players in the world,
Mizutani and his Japanese teammates now have a big job ahead and a win
would be an incredible achievement.
Mizutani makes history with bronze for Japan’s first table tennis medal ever
Kyodo,
The Japan Timesより
RIO DE JANEIRO – Jun Mizutani made Japanese table tennis history Thursday, winning the country’s first Olympic singles medal, a bronze, when he beat Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus 4-1 in Rio.
