A 17-year-old dominates in Korean women’s ping pong championship

A Korea’s female ping pong sensation successfully took the lead in bringing her team to the championship in the first year of the Korean professional ping pong league.

POSCO Energy beat Samsung Life Insurance 3-1 thanks to Kim Na-young’s stellar performance in the first round of the Korea League (primary league) Championship of the 2022 Korea Table Tennis League. The 17-year-old garnered two wins in single competitions in the round, which took place at Gwanggyo Ssireum (traditional Korean wrestling) Gymnasium in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province on Saturday.

With an advantage of one win to rank first overall (12 wins, four losses, and winning points of 42) in the regular season league, POSCO Energy has won the post-season championship title as well even without playing the second match. A team that secures two wins first claims the victory in the Champ League.

To gain the upper hand in the race, POSCO Energy team coach Jeon Hye-gyeong fielded Kim Na-young, the youngest in her team, from the single competitions. Samsung Life attempted to counter POSCO Energy by fielding Choi Hyo-joo (24), who participated at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Kim managed to win the first set 11-9 through a tight race but easily won the second set 11-3 to garner the first win. With her team winning 2-1 overall, Kim defeated Samsung’s Byun Seo-young (19) 2-1 in the fourth single competition to secure her team’s win.


leper@donga.com