It was looking like a runaway. 2021 ITTF-ATTU Asian Championships, which concluded today in Doha, Qatar, began with most attention focused on a team which was not even participating. China, which won all seven medals at the 2019 Asian Championships, made headlines when they declined to attend the biennial bash. With the field wide open, the team making the most of the opportunity was Japan. Heading into the final day, Japan had won four of the five titles on offer: Women's Teams, Women's Singles, Men's Doubles, and Mixed Doubles. Only South Korea interrupted the dominance, getting on the board with the Men's Teams title. With Japan up 4-1 entering the final day, and only two more events to conclude, there was no way for South Korea to catch Japan's medal count. What they could do, however, was make the final tally more respectable. South Korea closed the gap a little when Jeon Jihee and Shin Yubin secured the Women's Doubles title. An hour later, their countryman Lee Sangsu (pictured) secured the Men's Singles title in dramatic fashion. The 31-year-old Lee overcame 40-year-old veteran Chuang Chih-Yuan of Chinese Taipei, 11-8 in the deciding fifth game. While Lee could not give his country the overall medal lead over Japan, he contributed plenty with wins in Men's Singles and Men's Teams. The perfect Monday for South Korea brought the overall medal count to 4-3 in Japan's favor, preventing the dreaded runaway. More significantly, Lee Sangsu now brings home his proud nation's first-ever Men's Singles title in the Asian Championships, which date to 1952.

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