(by Wade Townsend)
Harimoto keeps rewriting the records
2017 saw Japan’s table tennis wonder kid continue to rewrite the record books.
Tomokazu Harimoto closed out 2016 setting records. He became the youngest ever World Junior Champion, keeping his somewhat older peers in line. The table tennis sensation was making headlines around the world for his ability to wrangle in the sporting arena with competitors twice his age. So was anyone really surprised when he continued to set records in 2017?
On the fateful afternoon of Sunday 27th August, Japan’s Tomokazu Harimoto was crowned Men’s Singles champion at the Seamaster 2017 ITTF World Tour Czech Open in Olomouc. In doing so he became the youngest ever player to win a World Tour title. He did the unthinkable at 14 years and 61 days old. The previous youngest was China’s Yu Ziyang; he was 16 years and 30 days old when he won in Japan in 2014.
Harimoto took the title the hard way. In the final he encountered an in form Timo Boll. Boll has had somewhat of a renaissance in 2017. In fact the German’s performance has been so good that he will find himself at no.3 in the world come January 2018. But Harimoto was having none of it at the Czech Open. He took the match 11-9 in the sixth game to write his way in to the history books.
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