The South Korean national table tennis team is heading to the Asian Championships with effectively a "B-team."

The roster for the 29th Asian Table Tennis Championships, running from October 19 to 25 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, excludes top-tier domestic players such as Shin Yubin (Korean Air), Lim Jong-hoon (Korea Exchange), and Jang Woojin (Sae-A).

They decided not to participate considering the accumulated fatigue from consecutive international competitions, including the 2026 Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, World Table Tennis (WTT) Champions, and China Smash.

Instead, other players who passed the national team selection trials held in May for the Asian Games and Asian Championships, along with runners-up, have inherited the Taegeuk mark.

The men's national team is composed of Park Kyu-hyun (Mirae Asset Securities), Lim Yu-no (Samsung Life Insurance), Kim Min-hyuk (K-water), Kang Dong-soo (Samsung Life Insurance), and Park Kang-hyun (Mirae Asset Securities), while the women's team consists of Lee Eun-hye, Park Gahyun (both of Korean Air), Lee Da-eun (Korea Racing Authority), Lee Xion, and Yu Si-woo (both of Hwaseong City Hall).


For these players, this is a golden opportunity to prove their competitiveness on the international stage.

General Manager Choi Young-il will oversee the delegation, with Coach Seok Eun-mi and Coach Seohyun [Note: Seohyun-deok] guiding the women's team, and Coach Yoon Jae-young leading the men's team.

At last year's tournament, which featured only team events, the South Korean women's team defeated Hong Kong to reach the semifinals and win a bronze medal, while the men's team lost to Japan in the quarterfinals and failed to secure a medal.

This year's individual events offer qualification spots for next year's World Championships.

However, these qualification spots do not automatically belong to the individual players who earned them.

The berths are allocated to the country, and the Korea Table Tennis Association plans to hold separate selection trials matching the number of spots secured at this tournament.

The intention is to enhance the national team's competitiveness based on performance verified through selection trials rather than relying on world rankings.

All five players from both the men's and women's teams will compete in the singles events. In the men's doubles, the pairings are Park Kyu-hyun and Kim Min-hyuk, and Lim Yu-no and Kang Dong-soo. The women's doubles features Park Gahyun and Lee Da-eun, and Lee Xion and Yu Si-woo. The mixed doubles pairs are Park Kyu-hyun and Park Gahyun, and Park Kang-hyun and Lee Da-eun.

Both team and individual matches will be played as the best of five games (three-game wins).

South Korea has achieved success in individual events as well, such as at the 2024 Astana tournament in Kazakhstan, where Lim Jong-hoon and An Jaehyun (Korea Exchange) won the men's doubles gold medal for the first time in 32 years, and Oh Jun-sung (Korea Exchange) claimed the bronze medal in men's singles.

(Photo provided by Korea Table Tennis Association, Yonhap News)