Kazakhstan’s table tennis players achieve historic feat at World Championships in South Korea
Kazakhstan achieved a historic feat at the recent ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships Finals in the South Korean Busan, Kazinform News Agency has learnt from the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Despite the Kazakh squad was upset by India 2:3 in the Men’s Teams Round 32 match, they managed to find a way to shine at the competition. Kirill Gerassimenko stunned Harmeet Desai 3:2 and Sharath Kamal 3:1. However, his teammate Alan Kurmangaliyev suffered losses to Sharath Kamal Achanta 2:3 and Harmeet Desai 1:3. Aidos Kenzhigul was defeated by Sathiyan Gnanasek 1:3.
Albeit losing in the Round of 32, Team Kazakhstan achieved a historic feat by reaching the final stage and landing the 17th line out of 40 participating countries in the overall standing.
Head coach of the Kazakh side Elmira Aliyeva admitted that the match against India was a tough one. “Kirill Gerassimenko once again proved his high level of the game earning 2 points for the team. He claimed 9 wins in 9 matches,” said Aliyeva, praising the athlete.
Gerassimenko, in her words, earned recent resounding wins over World Cup winner and six-time Olympics medalist Dimitrij Ovtcharov, silver medalist of the World Championships and three-time European champion Dang Qiu and other strong opponents at the event.
Elmira Aliyeva also gave credit to women’s national table tennis team who edged out Australia 3:2 in the second match of Group 6 at the event, claiming the 25 spot in the overall standing, the highest ranking ever.
