, or Han Yang in Chinese, is a Japanese table tennis player of Chinese origin. He won two gold medals in the men's singles at the 2007 ITTF Pro Tour series in

Belo Horizonte, Brazil Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, and in

Santiago, Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital (political), capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated Regions of Chile, region, t ...

. As of December 2012, Kan is ranked no. 99 in the world by the

International Table Tennis Federation The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) is the governing body for all national 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 p ...

(ITTF). Kan is a member of the table tennis team for Tokyo Art Club in

Tokyo, Japan Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, and is coached and trained by Ryo Yuzawa. Kan is also right-handed, and uses offensive, penhold grip. Representing his adopted nation

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Kan qualified for the men's singles at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by earning an entry score of 12,000.75 points, and being selected as one of the top 15 seeded players from ITTF's Computer Team Ranking List. He received three byes in the preliminary rounds, before defeating Russia's Alexei Smirnov in the fourth match. Kan progressed to the round of sixteen match, where he lost to Chinese table tennis player and Olympic silver medalist Wang Hao, with a set-score of 1–4. Kan also joined with his fellow players

Seiya Kishikawa is a male Japanese table tennis player. He paired with Jun Mizutani in men's doubles competitions, the duo won four consecutive national titles from 2007 to 2010. They also won a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships and two titles at th ...

and

Jun Mizutani is a retired Japanese table tennis player. He became the youngest Japanese national champion at the age of 17. His consecutive singles titles at the national championships from 2007 to 2011 made him the first man to win the event five times in ...

for the inaugural men's team event. He and his team progressed to the knock-out stage by winning the preliminary pool round against Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Russia, with a total of six points and three straight victories. They lost the semi-final match to the German team (led by

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Dimitrij Ovtcharov (russian: Дмитрий Овчаров) or Dmytro Ovtcharov ( uk, Дмитро Овчаров; born 2 September 1988) is a Ukrainian-born German table tennis player. His father Mikhail (or Mikhaylo), a Soviet table tennis cha ...

), with a sudden death set score of 2–3, but offered another shot for the bronze medal by entering the play-offs. Kan and his team, however, were defeated in the second play-off by the Austrian trio

Chen Weixing Chen Weixing (Simplified Chinese: 陈卫星 Hanyu Pinyin: Chén Wèixīng, born April 27, 1972, Inner Mongolia, China) is an Austrian table tennis player of Chinese origin. He has played for SVS Lower Austria for several years. Chen found i ...

Robert Gardos Robert Gardos ( hu, Gárdos Róbert, ; born 16 January 1979 in Budapest) is a Hungarian-born Austrian table tennis player, European Champion and Olympic participant. He plays for the French club Chartres ASTT. Since the opening in 2011, Robert ...

, and former world champion

Werner Schlager Werner Schlager (born September 28, 1972 in Wiener Neustadt, Austria) is a table tennis player and former world champion from Austria. Career Schlager began playing table tennis when he was six years old, learning from his father, Rudolph Schl ...

, with a set score of 1–3.

References

External links

* ** ** * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kan, Yo 1978 births Living people Japanese male table tennis players Table tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic table tennis players for Japan Chinese emigrants to Japan Table tennis players from Shenyang Sportspeople from Tokyo Table tennis players at the 2006 Asian Games Chinese male table tennis players Naturalised table tennis players Asian Games competitors for Japan