On February 5, Beijing time, although there is still nearly half a year before the opening of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, according to Japanese media reports, the list of participants of the Japanese table tennis team will be officially announced on this day.
Prior to this, Japanese players Tomokazu Zhangmoto, Hayasuke Togami, Hina Hayata, and Miu Hirano had already won the singles and team places in advance with the top two results in the men's and women's team standings, but the team "third person" and mixed doubles list has not yet been revealed, among which the battle between Misei Ito and Miwa Zhang is the focus and deserves everyone's attention!
Unlike the previous Olympic cycle, which was completely based on world rankings, the Japanese table tennis team in this cycle uses a points-based approach to the selection of athletes, with the top two men and women directly participating in singles and team events, while the remaining team and mixed doubles places are determined by the recommendation of the Table Tennis Association.
However, before that, Tomokazu Zhangmoto/Hina Hayada has completely replaced Mizutani Hayabusa/Misei Ito and become the leading mixed doubles combination in the Japanese table tennis world, so the suspense in this area is not very big, and everyone is mainly concerned about the belonging of the "third person" of the group.
The competition in the men's team is fierce, with No. 3 Shinozuka Daito, No. 4 Yutai Tanaka, and No. 5 Yoshimura Maharu (World Champion) each with their own strengths, and the two national champions Yuya Uda, Ruiki Wagawa and 16-year-old hopeful star Matsushima Teruku are also possible, but objectively speaking, their strength is hardly called the top of the foreign association, so no matter who is on it, it will not have much impact on the national table tennis.
Relatively speaking, although the third person of the women's team has basically been determined to be Ito Misei and Zhang Benmei, they are both important opponents of national table tennis, and their respective advantages and disadvantages are very different, which is very interesting.
Misei Ito is the mixed doubles champion of the last Olympic Games, the runner-up of the women's team, and the third runner-up of the women's singles, with rich experience, and has defeated the main force of national table tennis many times, but has not won once in recent years; although Zhang Benmeihe has never broken through the main defense line of the Chinese team, she is still improving at the age of 15, and her skills and tactics are far from being finalized, so it is relatively more difficult to defend.
Judging from the current situation, the national table tennis may prefer Ito Misei to be selected, but she herself has previously said that she may give up participating in the competition, so can Zhang Benmei and catch the last train? Let's wait and see what happens!