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School hit by ferry disaster wins table tennis championship

April 18, 2014
Players from Danwon High School girls' table tennis team who won the national championship showed their emotional outburst when being awarded. The school's second-year students are major victims of the "Sewol" ferry tragedy. (Courtesy of JTBC)

Players from Danwon High School girls’ table tennis team who won the national championship showed their emotional outburst when being awarded. The school’s second-year students are major victims of the “Sewol” ferry tragedy. (Courtesy of JTBC)

By Ko Dong-hwan

A sad drama swept a table tennis competition Thursday, as Danwon High School, struggling to recover from the “Sewol” ferry tragedy since Wednesday, grabbed a winning trophy.

The girl’s team, including three second-year students, Park Se-ri, Ahn Yeong-eun and Kim Min-jeong, was in the middle of the 60th national table tennis championship when the accident occurred. The three students had given up on the school trip to participate in the championship.

The team won a semi-final match against Anyang Girl’s High School by 3-2 on Tuesday. It was the next day morning that they found out their classmates and rest of the second year students from their school were knocked off inside a capsized ferry.

With their final match scheduled Thursday, the dumbfounded athletes couldn’t brace themselves to wade through another game, with their home school shattered by the accident creeping inside their minds. According to the report, they considered forfeiting the final match.

It was their coach who persuaded them to finish the championship and present the winning trophy to their peers. And they did. Against Daesong High School from Ulsan, the girls won by 3-1.

But they couldn’t relish the sweet victory. The girls were witnessed to have cried while accepting the trophy, presumably feeling the mixture of pride and sorry for all who could have been enjoying their Jeju trip if it weren’t for the accident.