Sunday, November 28, 2021
World Cup medal for sure
Entered the semifinals as Timo
Shortly before the quarterfinals of the Table Tennis World Championships, Timo Poll suffered abdominal pain. The 40-year-old is still battling to win against American Kanak Zhao, who is already assured of bronze. But silver or gold should still follow.
Timo Paul has secured the individual World Cup medal for the second time in his career. The 40-year-old defeated American Kanak Jawa 4-2 in the semifinals of the Table Tennis World Championships in Houston on Saturday afternoon (local time), despite a painful abdominal muscle strain. As the third place in the World Cup is not played extra, as can no longer pick up the bronze medal. Whether it turns out to be silver or gold will now be decided in the last four rounds, which will take place on Monday night according to German time.
“Table tennis can be crazy,” Paul said. “I do not know if I can leave anymore. That feeling is no longer good. But I wanted to try everything and blame myself for not giving everything in the World Cup quarter – finals.” Since the start of this week’s World Cup, the record-breaking European champions Borussia Dசsseldorf have been suffering from abdominal muscle problems. So far in this match they have not affected him much. The pain got worse before the fight with 19-year-old Jav.
Driven by his own audience, the American won the first set 11: 4. He then went on to score a unilateral second (11: 5) and a tough third round (12:10), which led the match in his direction. In the end, he used the first point in three match points against a foreigner who played for TTF Liebherr Ochsenhausen in the Bundesliga. “It’s a tough game for Timo. He’s already disabled and you can feel him tormenting himself,” said national coach Jork Roskop. “But he has quality. He really wanted the medal.”
Only one Chinese opponent in the final
The star of Borussia Düsseldorf has already topped the world rankings four times, winning eight European titles and six World Cup medals with the German team. However, at the Olympics or the World Championships, he only won a bronze medal at the 2011 World Championships in Rotterdam. “At the time I was the vice president of DTDP and personally traveled to Rotterdam. It was a great experience. “And there are still options open.”
At this World Cup, many well-known athletes benefit from losing half of the competition: vice-world champion Matthias Falk (Sweden), runner-up Japanese Tomokasu Harimoto or Olympic semifinalist. Lin Yun-ju (Taiwan). “We looked at the draw and we knew what was possible,” Roskop said. Like was able to meet only one Chinese again in the final.
