South Korea steamrolled Austria 3-1 Monday to capture men's team bronze medal at table tennis tournament of the Beijing Olympic Games.
South Korea pitted 15th-ranked Oh Sang Eun, Ryu Seung Min and Yoon Jae Young against Austrian 2003 world champion Werner Schlager, Robert Gardos and former Chinese player Chen Weixing.
Oh showed a scintillating form in taking on Schlager and rounded off a quick 3-1 victory.
Ryu, using his powerful forehand loops, blew a 1-0 lead against Gardos in the beginning of the second game. But Gardos came back strong to complete a 3-1 win, pulling one back for Austria.
The doubles played between Oh/Yoon and Gardos/Chen turned back in South Korea's favor as Oh/Yoon overcame the Austrian duo's challenge to prevail 3-0.
The defense of 31-seeded chopper Chen Weixing went into pieces under Ryu's waves of charges, losing the tiebreaker 0-3, with Austria's medal-chasing dream shattered.
"I could not hold off Ryu's onslaught and his attacks are too powerful for me to cope with. I've played against him several times before but never won," Chen said.
Gardos said that the result of the team tournament is not important as competing in the Olympic Games itself made him feel happy.
"I've won Gardos twice. But this time I had no chance. He played well and was very confident," Ryu said. He has dropped most of the games we fought since the team tournament kicked off on Aug. 13.
As for his confrontation with Chen, Ryu said he was familiar with Chen's style and seized the opportunity to win.
"I hope that I can repeat the Athens glory. But now it is a bit more difficult than in Athens because Wang Hao was in a great form. Anyway, I'll try my best," the defending Olympic champion said.
Four years ago in Athens, Ryu beat the then rising star Wang in the final to clinch the most coveted singles title, a pity that China smarted over time and again.
In his rematch with Wang Hao in the team semifinal last Saturday, Ryu appeared more on a defensive side and could not withstand Wang's skillful serves and returns, losing 7-11, 11-6, 9-11, 6-11.
South Korea crashed Hong Kong of China to forge ahead in fighting for the bronze medal while Austria trashed Japan to book the berth for the third-place finish contest.
On Sunday, the equally formidable South Korea women won team bronze medal after finishing off a tenacious Japan.
Chinese women fended off a strong challenge from Singapore to clinched team title title, the 17th since table tennis was introduced at the Olympic Games in 1988.
The table tennis tournament, held in the 8,000-seat Peking University Gymnasium, is scheduled to last 11 days starting from Aug. 13.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)
