by Simon Daish
On Sunday 21st January Tomokazu Harimoto put in a terrific performance against Rio 2016 Men’s Singles bronze medallist Jun Mizutani to set a new record. Harimoto became the youngest ever player to win the Men’s Singles title at the Japanese National Championships aged just 14 years and 207 days old.
Celebrations were held on Saturday 3rd February in Sendai City to mark the historic achievement with approximately 120 people in attendance.
Winning a first Japanese National Championships trophy is a considerable accomplishment, especially for someone as young as Harimoto, but the teenage star has lofty ambitions as he sets his sights on Olympic gold:
“I can work harder, I will make more effort to get a gold medal at Tokyo 2020.” Tomokazu Harimoto
Harimoto occupies 11th spot in the men’s world rankings table as of February 2018 and has been included in Japan’s squad for the upcoming 2018 ITTF Team World Cup set to take place from Thursday 22nd to Sunday 25th February.