The organizers of the BNK Busan Bank 2024 Busan World Table Tennis Championships have a big worry on their minds.

It is the so-called ‘Table Tennisgate’ in the soccer world.

Table Tennisgate was an incident in which the South Korean national soccer team competing at the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup in Qatar played table tennis on the eve of their semifinal match against Jordan, and conflicts erupted into 카지노사이트 physical clashes.

The organizers of the Busan World Table Tennis Championships have been working hard to promote the tournament as it will be the first world championship to be held in the centenary year of table tennis in South Korea.

However, since Table Tennisgate broke out, the only names that come up when searching for “table tennis” on internet portals are those of soccer players such as Son Heung-min (Tottenham), Lee Kang-in (Paris Saint-Germain), and coach Jürgen Klinsmann.

That’s been the case since the World Table Tennis Championships opened in Busan on Saturday.

“We are in a very difficult situation. We don’t know what to do,” he sighed heavily.

But if the national table tennis team performs well at the tournament, the attention of sports fans will gradually shift to the ‘real thing’.

In the morning’s opening match of the tournament, the Korean men’s team got off to a flying start with a 3-1 victory over Poland, a team that is known as the ‘Bokbyeong‘.

After the victory, the national team players and coach Joo Se-hyuk cheerfully fielded some rather nasty questions about Table Tennisgate in the mix zone.

The photo of Jang Woo-jin’s body with Lee Kang-in’s face was a hot topic among soccer and table tennis fans.

When asked if he had seen the photo, Joo said, “We laughed a lot. It would be a good way to promote the tournament,” he said, laughing out loud.

Jang Woo-jin, the “main character,” was also amused.

He was sent the photo by a Chinese fan on social media out of the blue.

“I heard that China was more upset about the Ping Pong Gate incident, but when I took a closer look at the photo, I realized it was me. Why did they choose me…” he said, laughing.

When asked if the national table tennis team is a one-man team, Jang Woo-jin answered confidently.

“Jung Young-sik (who retired) and Lee Sang-soo (who is now on the national team) changed the culture a lot. It’s an autonomous atmosphere where seniors and juniors treat each other with respect,” he said, adding, “We don’t have anything like that. If there was (discord), I think it would have broken out already.”

Poland is one of the three strongest teams in the group, along with South Korea and India.

South Korea, a team that has been touted as a tough team due to its young players, got over the first hurdle as a ‘one-man team’.

Ahn Jae-hyun (Korea Exchange) suffered a setback at third singles, but Jang Woo-jin swept his opponent at fourth singles to clinch the match.

Ahn breathed a sigh of relief, saying, “My brothers won the match.”

Jang Woo-jin hoped that more Busan citizens would fill the stands and support the players.

“I think there’s a lot more environment, a lot more home advantage (because it’s her first home World Championships),” Jang said, adding, “I feel like there’s one more person on our side, the home crowd, the fans. It’s comforting.”

Jeon Jeon-hee (Mirae Asset Securities), the ‘eldest sister’ of the women’s team that defeated Italy 3-0 on aggregate in the first match of the women’s group stage, said, “It was great to play in such a nice stadium with the support of the fans. The facilities were so good that we didn’t know if we were in the group stage or the semifinals,” said Jeon, who vowed to “gain confidence from today’s game and prepare better for the remaining matches.”

Shin Yoo-bin (Korean Air), the tournament’s “top star,” said, “I could hear the fans cheering for us, and that gave me more strength,” but vowed to “continue to play with a certain amount of nerves.