Kim Taik-Soo ``I am the King``

`The greatest star of Korean Table Tennis` Kim Taik-Soo (Korea Cigarette and Ginseng) moved up to the top in the 2001 SMK Korea Open Table Tennis Championships.

Kim won the title of the men`s single, defeating his national team colleague Lee Cheol-Seung (Samsung Life Insurance) 4-0 at the Jamsil Gymnasium yesterday.

Kim became the open champion in 7 years since the Qutar Open Championships in 1994. Moreover, it is his first title in the international tournaments since the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. With this win, Kim also escaped `the Lee Cheol-Seung Jinx`, having recorded four straight losses to him since the 1999 China Open Championships.

Kim captured the first and second sets 11-7, attacking Lee with the strong drives. But he faced the critical moment in the first set. After winning the third set 12-10, Kim Taik-Soo thrusted Lee to finish the fourth set at 11-8.

The experts agreed that the final match between Kim and Lee was significant in the sense that the Korean table tennis discovered the possibility of overcoming the world`s strongest China in 11-point system.

Kim Taik-Soo and Lee Cheol-Seung faced each other, after defeating Liu Guoliang and Jan Jian respectively in semifinals. In particular, the world 11th place Liu Guoliang is the best player who won the titles in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and the 1999 World Championships. As Kong Linhui (third place) and Ma Lin (fourth place) were defeated by Lee Cheol-Seung and Kim Kun-Hwan (Sangmu), the Chinese top-rankers fell to the victims in this open championship that for the first time introduced the 11-point system.

In women`s single, Riu Jie-Hye (Samsung Life Insurance) earned a silver medal, defeated 2-4 by the world No. 1 Wang Nan (China) in the final.

In women`s double, Gaosi and Lijia won 4-1 over the Sydney gold medallists Wang Nan and Li Ju. And Kong Linhui and Liu Guoliang (China) won the title of men`s double.

Joo Sung-Won swon@donga.com