was an international

table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

player from Japan.

Table Tennis career

From 1952 to 1953 he won two medals in the singles and team events in the

World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include me ...

and four medals in the

Asian Table Tennis Championships The Asian Table Tennis Championships is a biennial table tennis tournament regarded as continental championships by International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). From 1952 to 1972, the tournament was organized by the Table Tennis Federation of Asi ...

. Hiroji was the first person to use a sponge on his racket, a common feature of all modern table tennis rackets. Although, at the time it may have seemed as though this technological advancement gave him an unfair advantage, it has truly brought table tennis into the modern age and as the Olympic sport we know today. He won

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

in the team event at the

1952 World Table Tennis Championships The 1952 World Table tennis, Table Tennis Championships were held in Mumbai, Bombay from 1 to 10 February 1952.The 1952 World Championships were marked by the arrival of the Japanese as a Table Tennis force on the world scene. In another first t ...

and a

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

in the men's singles at the

References

External links

*
Spongers Seldom Chisel
on Sports Illustrated Japanese male table tennis players People from Aomori (city) 1925 births 2000 deaths {{Japan-tabletennis-bio-stub

Table Tennis career

See also

References

External links