Jong-Hoon Lim and Yu-Bin Shin
Shin Yu-bin (Korean Air) and Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange) lost to the Japanese group, the ‘second seed competitor’, in table tennis mixed doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The pair of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin defeated Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto and Hina Hayata 2-3 (3-11 11-5) in the mixed doubles final of the World Table Tennis (WTT) Star Contender Ljubljana 2024 held in Ljubljana, Slovenia on the 16th (local time). We lost 7-11 11-8 5-11).
The team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who lost 2-3 in the WTT Contender Zagreb final match that ended last week, lost to the Harimoto-Hayata group and ended up in runners-up, raising anxiety about becoming the second seed in the Olympics.
Currently, China’s Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha are firmly maintaining their first place in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) mixed doubles world rankings, while Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin are ranked second and Harimoto and Hayata are ranked third.
Since the Olympic draw is based on the ITTF rankings, the team must secure second place to avoid China until the semifinals in Paris.
In terms of current ranking points, the team of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin are recording 3,745 points, and the team of Harimoto and Hayata are recording 3,095 points.
The ranking points awarded for this Ljubljana competition are 600 points for the winner and 420 points for the runner-up.
With the Harimoto-Hayata group winning that day, the gap in ranking points between the two groups is expected to narrow further in the new rankings announced this week.
The pair of Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin, who ended the Ljubljana competition with a disappointing ‘consecutive second place finish’, plans to do their best to take second place by competing in WTT Contender Lagos and WTT Star Contender Bangkok before the Olympics. 고스톱