Nobuhiko Hasegawa

Hasegawa at the 1966 Asian Games
Personal information
Born	(1947-03-05)5 March 1947 Seto, Aichi, Japan[1]
Died	7 November 2005(2005-11-07) (aged 58) Kiryu, Gunma, Japan
Sport
Sport	Table tennis
Club	Aichi Technical College
Medal record Representing  Japan World Championships 1967 Stockholm Team 1967 Stockholm Singles 1967 Stockholm Mixed doubles 1967 Stockholm Doubles 1969 Munich Team 1969 Munich Mixed doubles 1969 Munich Doubles 1971 Nagoya Team 1971 Nagoya Doubles 1973 Sarajevo Team Asian Games 1966 Bangkok Team 1966 Bangkok Singles 1966 Bangkok Doubles 1974 Tehran Doubles 1974 Tehran Team

Nobuhiko Hasegawa (長谷川 信彦, Hasegawa Nobuhiko, March 5, 1947 – November 7, 2005) was one of the best table tennis players worldwide from 1966 to 1974.^[2]

Table tennis career

From 1966 until 1974 he won five gold medals at world championships^[3][4] and two golds at the Asian Games.^[5]

In total he won ten World Championship medals^[6] His mixed doubles partners were Noriko Yamanaka and Yasuko Konno respectively and his men's doubles partners were Mitsuru Kono and Tokio Tasaka.

Hasegawa was a famous exponent of heavy topspin forehand attack, combined with lob defence. He used a modified shakehands grip with the index finger pointing down the center of the blade. This made his backhand a little awkward for fast attack, so even though a shakehander his tactics were similar to the Japanese penholders with wonderful footwork.^[7]

Hasegawa died while felling trees near his home and was buried under a tree.^[7]