By Ken Marantz
OCA Media
Toyota, Japan, September 24, 2026: After seeing the men’s team knocked off its Asian Games table tennis throne, China’s women made sure that their reign remained intact.
The trio of Sun Yingsha, Wang Manyu and Kuai Man each set down their Japanese counterparts for a comprehensive 3-0 victory in the women’s team final at Sky Hall Toyota to give China its sixth straight title and 12th overall.
The victory was a repeat of the final at the World Team Championships in May in London, which China won 3-2 in a much more competitive affair.
“I’m very happy to win this with my teammates,” Sun said. “We gave it our all in the final. When we met Japan in the world team championships recently, we had to really battle before winning eventually, so we knew this would not come easy. For me, I was the first on court. It was important for me to start us off well.
“The individual events are about to take place after this. Things will become harder. We will have harder opposition.”
Thursday’s clash in Toyota, about 30 kilometers southwest of Nagoya, featured five of the six top-ranked players in the world, but it was the Chinese who shined brightest before a crowd filled with flag-waving compatriots.
The most competitive match came in the second rubber in which world No. 1 Wang was pushed to the brink by world No. 3 Miwa Harimoto before pulling out a razor-thin 3-2 (6-11, 11-4, 9-11, 11-6, 12-10) victory.
That avenged a loss at the world team in London, when Harimoto edged Wang by the same 3-2 score by winning the last game 11-4.
“Harimoto’s level is world class,” Wang said. “I don’t have much of an advantage. I knew that my match with Harimoto is a very important one in this tie. I lost to her at the world team championships and it was also very important for me to get this victory.
“Whether it was earning a point for the team, or personally, it's very important that I was able to achieve this result.”
Harimoto said that she wasn’t able to use what worked for her in London, but was satisfied with her performance.
“I felt during the match that I have grown stronger,” she said. “Up to now, I’ve never felt that in a match that I lost. But I feel I responded well during the match. It was a good experience for me.”
Sun, ranked No. 2, got the ball rolling in the opening match with a 3-1 (11-4, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7) victory over sixth-ranked Hina Hayata, a repeat of their meeting in London.
Following Wang’s dramatic victory over Harimoto, world No. 4 Kuai wasted little time in powering to a 3-0 (11-6, 11-5, 11-7) over an error-prone Mima Ito.
For Sun and Wang, it was their third Asian Games gold in the team event.
DPR Korea and Korea received the bronze medals as the losing semifinalists.
Sun, the reigning world singles champion and two-time Olympic silver medalist, will also be defending her Asian Games title in that competition, and is paired with men’s world No. 1 Wang Chuqin in the mixed doubles.
Wang will look to regain the Asian Games singles gold she won in 2018. She is also paired with Kuai in the women’s doubles and will play mixed doubles.
Hayata and Harimoto are Japan’s entries in the women’s singles.
The Japanese women’s defeat came a few hours after Harimoto’s older brother, Tomokazu, helped the Japanese men stun China to win the host nation’s first men’s team gold in 60 years.
