An Jae-hyeon wins his first medal at World Table Tennis Championships

An Jae-hyeon claimed a bronze medal in his first World Table Tennis Championships appearance at the age of 20. He is now the youngest Korean male player to win a medal in the world championships.

An settled for a bronze after his 3-4 loss to Mattias Falck of Sweden at the men's singles semi-final of the World Table Tennis Championships in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

With the bronze he won, An became the new youngest Korean medalist of the world championships 28 years after Kim Taek-su, the coach of Korean national table tennis team, won a bronze in the 1991 Chiba World Championships in Japan at the age of 21.

He has become a symbol of the future of Korean table tennis after this event. An ranked 157th globally defeated No. 14 Wong Chun Ting of Hong Kong 4-0 during the first round match. He continued to earn impressive wins against Austrian player Daniel Habesohn ranked 29th at the round of 32, and Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto ranked 4th, Japan’s teenage table tennis prodigy, at the round of 16.

An continued his win streak even against top Korean player Jang Woo-jin ranked 10th with a 4-3 win at the last-eight match.


Won-Joo Lee takeoff@donga.com