Seventeen-year-old French ace, world No. 5 Felix Lebrun, won a pair of singles matches, including the decider, as the host nation beat Japan 3-2 in Friday’s Paris Olympics men’s team table tennis bronze medal match.
After Japan lost the opening doubles match and the first singles match at South Paris Arena, Shunsuke Togami defeated Lebrun’s older brother Alexis 11-8, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9 to stave off elimination.
Japan’s top-ranked player, world No. 9 Tomokazu Harimoto, who lost the first singles match after twice being up a game against Felix Lebrun, evened the tie with an 11-8, 8-11, 11-8, 14-12 win over Simon Gauzy.
With a home crowd that became more boisterous as the competition went on, the younger Lebrun brother returned to the table to down Japan’s 42nd-ranked lefty Hiroto Shinozuka 11-7, 11-7, 12-14, 13-11 to earn France a spot on the podium.
“My opponent is higher ranked, so I came in focused on really going all out on those things I can do,” Shinozuka said. “I was able to execute about 90 percent of my attacking techniques.”
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