On May 1, 2023, Japanese table tennis world champion Yoshijun Ishikawa suddenly officially announced his retirement and said goodbye to the arena.
To be fair, it is not surprising that a 30-year-old veteran chooses to say goodbye at any time, but Yoshijun Ishikawa's decision still feels a bit rushed, because on April 19, she also participated in the WTT Macau Championship in China, but she decided to retire less than two weeks later.
So what caused Yoshijun Ishikawa to make up his mind so quickly? Personally, I think there are three reasons, of which a decision of the Japan Table Tennis Association is "indispensable".
First of all, the most direct trigger for Ishikawa Jiachun's retirement should be the recent successive defeats against Chen Meng and Guoping in recent years, which has made him frustrated.
This is by no means unfounded, because Ishikawa Jiajun himself bluntly said that his decision to retire was made after the WTT Macau Championship, and she lost to Chen Meng in the two competitions of Macau and Xinxiang, and as for other national table tennis players, it is inevitable that she will be in a bad mood.
Of course, this can only be regarded as an inducement and fuse, after all, if the main player of the losing country retired, then there should be few athletes playing table tennis in the foreign association now, so what really matters are the other two reasons.
A fact that everyone can clearly see: Ishikawa Yoshijun's competitiveness within the Japanese women's table tennis is declining and it is difficult to sustain.
As early as the Tokyo Olympic cycle, Yoshijun Ishikawa's "first sister" position has been shaken, first by Mimato Ito completely compared, and then almost lost the Olympic singles, very thrilling to beat Miyu Hirano and get a ticket. But even so, Yoshijun Ishikawa at that time was at least the core workhorse of the top two in the team.
However, after the arrival of the Paris Olympic cycle, Ishikawa Jiachun continued to regress, Chengdu World Table Tennis Championships, Hangzhou Asian Games, Durban World Table Tennis Championships did not make the selection, the national championship has repeatedly hit a wall, how can you not be discouraged? At the same time, the Japanese Table Tennis Association also sent her a "fatal blow".
As early as the Tokyo Olympics, the Japan Table Tennis Association had decided to change the selection rules of the past "only world ranking", and then introduced the "points" selection method, requiring ignoring the ranking, assessing the performance of athletes in some domestic and foreign events and converting them into points.
Embarrassingly, Yoshijun Ishikawa's participation in WTT events, which have many opportunities and decent performance, is basically excluded from the new selection method; In addition, the Japan Table Tennis Association also includes commercial events such as the T League into the assessment, which makes the veterans with low "attendance" weak.
Not long ago, Ishikawa Jiajuncai tore his face and publicly bombarded the policy of the Japanese Table Tennis Association, but it couldn't change anything, and if the new method is used to select people, Ishikawa Jiajun's failure to participate in the Paris Olympics is almost a matter of ironclad, how can she not be disappointed?
At present, Yoshijun Ishikawa's world ranking is still third within the Japanese women's team, and if it can be maintained, although it may not be able to participate in the Olympic singles, it is still possible to compete in the team competition and win a medal. But now that the Olympic Games can't be held, and major events such as the World Table Tennis Championships and the Asian Games are also frequently lost, what is the motivation to persevere?
Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the Japanese Table Tennis Association has sent a "fatal blow" to Ishikawa Yoshijun's career - she has already gained fame and fortune, since she wants to stay in the arena, of course, she hopes to go to the top competitions such as the Olympics, otherwise why fight with young people?
As an old opponent and old friend of China's table tennis scene, no matter how Ishikawa Jiachun chooses, he still wants to send her blessings here: life is not only table tennis, now we don't say goodbye, the next game will be in the future!