POSTED: Sunday May 3rd 2009
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Crying Japanese Women Find Smile again as Japan Wins First Medal

Mizutani/Kishikawa Qualified for the Semis

Sadness and happiness for the host nation within a few moments: Ai FUKUAHRA and Sayaka HIRANO lost their quarter-final match in the Women’s Doubles at the H.I.S. 2009 World Championships against the Chinese top seeds GUO Yue/LI Xiaoxia and were inconsolable. However, the next match on the same table brought the much longed release for Japan.

Mizutani/Kishikawa Qualified for the Semis
Japan’s Men’s doubles Jun MIZUTANI and Seiya KISHIKAWA won their quarter-final match against Singapore’s GAO Ning/YANG Zi and secured the first (and only) medal for Japan. The 12,524 spectators in the Yokohama Arena were drunk with joy.

At the press conference the players tried to stop the enthusiasm at least a bit: “Our coach said to calm down and prepare for the next match”, MIZUTANI said looking forward to the semi-final. His partner looked back to the World Championships in Zagreb 2007: “Two years ago we lost in the quarter-finals”, KISHIKAWA remembered. “All the experiences we’ve made since then, especially at the Olympic Games, helped us.

Li Ping and Cao Zhen Win Gold
The World champions in the Mixed Doubles event and first gold medallists in Yokohama are LI Ping and CAO Zhen. For the 22 year old LI Ping it was the first World Championships and he was in the mood to celebrate at the press conference. “I am very excited because every player dreams do become a World champion”, he said.

Singles Champions Prevail
GUO Yue and WANG Liqin both reached the semi-finals in their respective singles event. While Ms. GUO overcame world number 6 FENG Tianwei of Singapore relatively clear in five games, the defending champion in the Men’s Singles had to go over the full distance; WANG Liqin wrestled down compatriot CHEN Qi in seven games.


No Medal For Europe
For the second consecutive time no other continent than Asia wins medals at the World Championships. The last two Europeans quit the draw today in the quarter-finals, one round too soon for a medal. Iveta VACENOVSKA of the Czech Republic and Denmark’s Michael MAZE have to wait two more years for the next chance to win a medal.

VACENOVSKA probably played the match of her life against China’s LIU Shiwen but it was not good enough. Still the Czech showed satisfaction with her performances in Japan. “It’s the best result of my life and I enjoyed the match”, she said. “I cannot play better at the moment.” Although VACENOVSKA lost 1-4, the match was completely equal most of the time.

Michael MAZE for his part did not play the match of his life that would have been necessary to win against China’s world number 3 MA Long. “I had three chances in this match”, the Dane said regretfully about the first, second and fourth game where he was equal with MA. “If I had won on the first two games, things could have taken another way. MA seemed a bit nervous to me today, but if you have three chances and you don’t use any of it, you cannot win against him.”

For pictures, articles, results and further information please consult www.ittf.com or contact me.

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Keywords · H.I.S. 2009 World Championships · ITTF · table tennis · Jun MIZUTANI · Seiya KISHIKAWA ·

Name: Marius Widmer
Organization: International Table Tennis Federation
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URL: http://www.ittf.com

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