Lim Jong-hoon and Shin Yu-bin of South Korea lost in the semifinals of the mixed doubles table tennis event at the Paris Olympics on Monday, falling to the bronze medal match as a result.

The third-seeded South Koreans dropped to the top-ranked team from China, Wang Chuqin and Sun Yingsha, by 4-2 (6-11, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7, 11-9) at South Paris Arena 4 in Paris.

Lim and Shin will now face Wong Chun Ting and Doo Hoi Kem of Hong Kong with a bronze medal at stake on Tuesday.

The Hong Kong team lost to Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong of North Korea 4-3 (11-3, 10-12, 3-11, 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 11-6) in the first semifinal match of Monday.

Ri and Kim have secured at least the silver medal, North Korea’s first medal of the Paris Olympics.

Lim and Shin took the first two out of three games, before the Chinese won the next three to close out the match.

In the fifth game, South Korea scored the first three points, but then China battled back to take a 7-5 lead. Wang and Sun took that game 11-7.

The sixth game was
a back-and-forth affair. With the score tied at 9-9, Wang’s drive set up the match point for China. South Korea’s bid for a rally ended when Lim’s backhand return went long.

Lim and Shin put up a good fight against the No. 1 seed but the South Koreans said they weren’t going to be content with a moral victory.

“We played well but in the end, we lost,” Shin said. “No matter how well we may have played, we still lost.”

Lim said he wanted to enjoy the challenge of going up against the top tandem.

“Even the strongest of players can get rattled in Olympic matches,” Lim said. “We wanted to play with joy and be aggressive. It helped us early on but in the end, the Chinese players were better.”

Lim and Shin will now try to win South Korea’s first table tennis medal in 12 years.

“The result today is disappointing, but the match is already over,” Shin said. “We have an important match coming up with a medal at stake. We’ll have to prepare for it the best we can.”

Source: Yonhap News Agency