These are the first table tennis medals awarded at the first Olympic event ever held in Africa, in the sport’s fourth appearance at the Youth Olympic Games since its debut at Singapore 2010.
HISTORY has its first Olympic table tennis champions on African soil. Japan’s Ryuusei Kawakami and Miku Matsushima are the Youth Olympic mixed doubles champions, after beating Hong Kong, China’s Li Ki Ho and Su Tsz Tung 3-1 in the final at the Dakar Expo Centre.
They did it the hard way. Having taken a tight opening game 11-9, the Japanese pair were pegged back when Li and Su edged the second 12-10.
Kawakami and Matsushima answered with an emphatic 11-6 third, and when the fourth went beyond 10-10, it was the Japanese pair who found the final two points, sealing gold 13-11.
