Ito linked up with Ai Fukuhara and Kasumi Ishikawa to defeat Singapore 3-1 for third place.
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Coach Yasukazu Murakami said trying to move on from Sunday’s crippling 3-2 loss against Germany was not easy, a result that denied Japan a second successive trip to the Olympic final.
“If I’d stayed in China, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to compete at the Olympics because there are way too many players there”.
The top Singapore player in Feng and the top Japanese player in Kasumi Ishikawa faced off in the second match.
“It was hard getting ready for this match”, Murakami said.
Earlier in the Olympic Stadium, Kenya’s Faith Chepngetich Kipyegon timed her run to perfection to win gold in the women’s 1,500m while Canada’s Derek Drouin recorded his best leap of the year to win gold in the men’s high jump. It was a nervy ending as Yu and Zhou saved two match points, failed to convert the game point they had in the end before the Japanese clinched the victory on their third match point.
The first singles line gave an early indication of what was to come, as Jung Young-Sik took on Bastian Steger in a dogfight of a match.
A medal of any color in volleyball this year is still far from guaranteed, but to beat Brazil – who had not dropped a set all tournament and were looking for a third straight gold on their home turf – was quite something, and no one will be looking forward to playing China after a performance that left both sets of players in tears.
That bronze was the men’s only gymnastics medal in Rio.
Yu, making her debut at these Olympics, was heartbroken when she lost in the quarter-finals of the singles event as the 27-year-old knew she could have at least reached the last four. “So I was determined to win a medal today”. Singapore’s Zhou Yihan and Yu Mengyu could not beat Ito Mima and Fukuhara Ai. “I feel responsible for Luxembourg as a daughter-in-law of this country”, she said.
She said she had learned to enjoy the Olympic experience more this time around.
Yu started playing with more intent and objective increasing her aggressiveness. “She’s not your average player”.
Fukuhara lost the fifth and deciding match in the team semifinals against Germany, denying Japan a chance to go for the gold medal.
“The Olympics is just so special that you can’t turn it down when the offer comes knocking”, he said, “Moving to this country, I have been able to extend my career, so I’m grateful for the support it offered”.
Despite losing the Gold medal, Germany has secured the Silver medal, which is Germany’s first Women’s Olympic Table Tennis medal, and first for Europe since Seoul 1988.
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DPR Korea won four medals to finish fourth in the rankings, but Rim Jong Sim was their only gold medallist after she won the women’s 75kg.
