Sports Briefs

TABLE TENNIS

North Korean teenager wins youth title at Korea Open

An upstart North Korean teenager captured a youth table tennis title in South Korea on Wednesday.

Ham Yu-song, 19, edged out Kohei Sambe of Japan 3-1 (11-9, 10-12, 11-6, 11-7) to take the men’s under-21 singles title at the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) World Tour Platinum Korea Open in Daejeon.

Listed as 175th in the U-21 world rankings, Ham upset world No. 4 Yuto Kizukuri of Japan in the quarterfinals and took down another Japanese player, Kakeru Sone, in the semifinals before beating Sambe.

Ham stormed out of the gate to take the first game against Sambe but blew a 9-5 lead in the second game to go down 12-10.

But Ham bounced back to win the next two games and close out the match.

FOOTBALL

Christiano Ronaldo is too busy to visit this month

Football star Cristiano Ronaldo will not visit Korea later this month, officials here said Thursday, due to his hectic schedule.

Korea Tech, a local home appliance seller that organized Ronaldo’s visit, said the 33-year-old Portuguese footballer decided to postpone his visit to Korea and Japan due to an abundance of scheduling commitments following his move from Real Madrid to Juventus in recent weeks.

Ronaldo was originally scheduled to visit Korea next Wednesday to promote a Japanese brand fitness product and hold meet and greet events for fans. He was expected to land in Korea after visiting Japan.

Korea Tech has not mentioned the new date of Ronaldo’s visit.

Ronaldo, who scored four goals at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, traveled to Korea in July 2007 when he was playing for Manchester United. He scored one goal and provided two assists to lead United to a 4-0 win over FC Seoul in a friendly match.

Yonhap