Video: Iran's Table Tennis Makes History, Defeats Japan in Asian Games; Nima Alamian Beats World Number 4
Iran’s men’s table tennis team made history this week by claiming a bronze medal in the Asian Games. It’s Iran’s first medal since 1958 Asian Games in Tokyo, where the Iranian team won a bronze medal in the men’s team behind South Vietnam and Japan. This year, Iran defeated Bahrain and Mongolia and lost to Hong Kong in Group E before advancing to face Japan. Then Iran defeated Japan 3-0 in the quarterfinals but failed to advance to the final after losing to South Korea 3-0.
The biggest surprise of the games came after Nima Alamiyan Darounkolaei (or Alamian, world number 208 from Babol, Iran), who has one of the strongest backhands in the world, shocked sports enthusiasts by defeating World Number 4 Tomokazu Harimoto from Japan in a close match. Alamian's breathtaking 13th point scored in the crucial third set (Minute marker 6:42 in the video) is among his most stunning performances ever. Many of the Chinese spectators https://partonews.ir/en/asian-games-nima-alamiyan-i-still-dont-believe-that-we-won-japan/ [cheered for Nima and Iran] during the match.
The loss was described as “humiliating” by Japanese media. Following the matches, 20-year-old Harimoto, Japan’s top male single player, took responsibility for the loss. He noted that the crowd in Hangzhou seemed to be cheering for Iran, making the atmosphere seem like an away game.
In the second match, Noshad Alamian (Nima's brother) took on Shunsuke Togami and won 3-2. Noshad is known as "The Backhand Man" since a neurological disorder forced him to adapt his game.
Amirhossein Haddadi, the third representative of Iran, defeated Daiki Yoshimura 3-2, putting Iran ahead of Japan 3-0.
With more than 12,000 competitors from 45 nations and territories, the Asian Games has more participants than the Olympics. Iran has sent 289 male and female athletes to the Games in 34 sports events, and is currently placed 8th in overall "total" medal rankings and 11th in weighted medal rankings.
