By Ken Marantz
OCA Media
Toyota, Japan, September 24, 2026: Sora Matsushima bounced back from a tough defeat in his opening match to win the decisive tie, giving Japan a stunning victory over rival China that ended a 60-year gold medal drought in the men’s table tennis team event at the Asian Games.
Matsushima defeated Wen Ruibo 3-1 (11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8) in the fifth and deciding match to give Japan a 3-2 victory, much to the chagrin of the largely pro-Chinese crowd on Thursday at Sky Hall Toyota.
“We’re still young,” said 19-year-old world No. 3 Matsushima. “Looking at Japan now and the current Chinese players, I think Japan is stronger, and I think the result today showed that.
“The wall that China has put up was big and to overcome that at home gives us confidence. I hope it leads to more results.”
Tomokazu Harimoto won both of his matches – including an inspired victory over world No. 1 Wang Chuqin – as Japan secured the team gold for the first time since the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok.
Japan’s victory avenged a loss to China in the final of the World Team Championships in London in May. All three Japanese from that clash – Shinsuke Togami was the third member -- and two of the Chinese battled in the Toyota final.
After Wang rallied to a 3-2 (5-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-9) win over Matsushima in the opening match, Harimoto squared the tie by beating Wen 3-1 (11-6, 8-11, 11-6, 11-9).
Lin Shidong, the only change from the London team, then restored the Chinese lead with a 3-1 (11-9, 4-11, 11-7, 11-6) victory over Togami in which he reeled nine straight points in the final game.
World No. 4 Harimoto then kept Japan hopes alive with an inspired whitewashing of Wang, winning 3-0 (11-7, 11-4, 11-9) in just 22 minutes.
“I could have done better in that fourth match,” Wang said. “Psychologically, I ran into some problems. There were many shots that I didn’t handle well enough.”
With the title on the line and the Chinese fans roaring their standard call of encouragement “Jai yau!,” Matsushima put on a devastating performance, sending back smashes in kind and launching high-velocity cross-table returns to put away Wen.
In his opening match, Matsushima, looking to avenge a loss to Wang in the London team final, got off to a good start when he swept the first two games.
He then came within two points of finishing off the match in the next game, but Wang battled out of the predicament and won the game to stay alive.
The two then repeated the scenario in game four, with Matsushima two points from victory and Wang fighting back, to send the match to a decisive fifth game.
In an intense back-and-forth battle in which neither player could build a lead of more than two points, a rapid-fire exchange on match point ended with Matsushima putting a sharp return into the net.
“I had a 2-0 lead and then I kind of let down my guard, which was frustrating,” Matsushima said. “But Harimoto came up with two wins and that got me into the fifth match.”
