RI women's team finishes 27th in table tennis World C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia women's team finished 27th in the World Table Tennis Championships in Osaka, Japan, after narrowly defeating Slovakia 3-2 on Friday.

Rossy Pratiwi Dipoyanti became the heroine for Indonesia, overcoming Zuzana Poliackova 21-19, 21-23, 21-18 in the decisive fifth match.

In the first match, Fauziah Yulianti got Indonesia off to a winning start by beating Poliackova 21-11, 12-21, 21-8.

But Rossy lost to Eva Odorova 21-14, 21-18 in the second match. Putri Naulina Hasibuan contributed earned a point for Indonesia by spanking Iveta Klacanska 21-10, 21-10.

Odorova came back in the fourth match and defeated Fauziah 19- 21, 21-11, 21-14 in a tight affair.

With the score locked at 2-2, Rossy dug deep within herself, tapping all of her skills and power to overcome Poliackova.

The Indonesian men's team grabbed a 3-0 win over Estonia to give the team the chance to finish 49th in the overall standings.

Ismu Harinto fought hard to overpower Juri Martin 21-12, 15- 21, 21-9. His victory gave a boost to Dian David Michael Jacobs, who slammed Vallot Vainula 21-14, 21-9.

Reno Handoyo sealed the team's victory by crushing Aleksandr Smirnov 19-21, 21-15, 21-13.

Indonesia will face either Portugal, Ireland or Iceland for 49th place.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported that North Korea earned the right to challenge China for the top prize in women's team table tennis, outplaying South Korea in an electrifying intrapeninsular battle on Friday.

North Korea's 3-1 victory over its southern neighbor in the world championship semifinals did as much to highlight Korean unity as it did cross-border rivalry.

The two countries had initially planned to field a unified team after a visit earlier this year to North Korea by South Korea's minister of culture, tourism and sports.

But North Korea backed out of the plan in March, citing difficulties reaching agreement over the issue.

The chance for table tennis diplomacy was not lost on ethnic Koreans resident in Japan, who have flocked to the world championships with banners calling for a unified peninsula and chanted simply "Ko-re-a".

Favorite and defending champion China ended Japan's dream of reaching the finals, crushing the host nation 3-0.

Japan's An Konishi put up a valiant fight but had no answer to the attacking play of Zhang Yining, ranked third in the world, who won 21-23, 21-15 21-10.

Number one Wang Nan, aiming with her teammates for a fifth straight world title and 14th overall, made short work of Japan's Yoshie Takada in a 21-14, 21-14 triumph.

Li Ju, ranked second, used her lethal topspin to complete a comfortable victory.

China will play North Korea in the final on Saturday. (yan)