Table tennis team wins one silver, six bronze medals on Saturday

Seo Su-yeon [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The Korean table tennis team took home a total of seven medals at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics on Saturday, claiming one silver and six bronze medals on a very busy day at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium.

Seo Su-yeon took the sole silver medal in the women's singles class one to two, losing to world No. 2 Liu Jing of China 3-1 in the final. Seo, ranked No. 3 in the world, earlier beat world No. 4 Catia Christina da Silva Oliveira of Brazil in the semifinal.

Earlier in the day, Lee Mi-gyu claimed Korea's first medal of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. Lee lost her semifinal game in the women's singles class three competition to Alena Kanova of Slovakia, but still took home a bronze medal under Paralympic table tennis rules that award four medals — two bronze, a silver and a gold — in each category.

Joon Ji-yu quickly picked up Korea's second medal, another bronze, after losing the other women's singles class three semifinal to Xue Juan of China.

The medal run continued just minutes later, with Park Jin-cheol and Cha Soo-yong claiming the two men's singles class two bronze medals after losing their semifinals to Rafal Czuper of Poland and Fabien Lamirault of France, respectively.

Nam Ki-won took home the fourth bronze medal, losing to countryman Joo Young-dae in the men's singles class one semifinal. Joo advances to the final on Monday, where he will face teammate Kim Hyeon-uk, who beat Thomas Matthews of Great Britain in the other semifinal.

The Korea-Korea matchup means Korea is guaranteed to take gold, silver and bronze in the men's singles class one contest.

The final bronze medal of the day went to Jung Young-a, who lost her women's singles class five semifinal to Zhang Bian of China.

There are 11 classes in Paralympic table tennis. All of the Korean athletes that medaled on Saturday were competing in wheelchair classes, ranging from class one, for athletes with no sitting balance and a severely affected playing arm, to class five, for athletes who compete in a wheelchair but have full sitting balance and playing arm functionality.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]