China completes Olympic table tennis gold clean sweep

PARIS: China completed a clean sweep of the Olympic gold medals in table tennis Saturday by winning the women’s team title in Paris, the sixth time the Chinese have collected the full set.

The Chinese women withstood a brave Japanese challenge but eventually overpowered their opponents 3-0, their fifth gold from five competitions at the Games.

The first tie, a doubles match pitting China’s Chen Meng and Wang Manyu against Hina Hinata and Miwa Harimoto, went down to the wire, the Chinese edging it 12-10 in the deciding fifth game.

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Individual silver medallist Sun Yingsha was also pushed hard by her Japanese opponent, Miu Hirano, but prevailed 3-0.

Then Wang finished off the job, beating Harimoto 3-1 to write another golden chapter in Chinese table tennis history.

Wang Chuqin and Sun started the Chinese gold rush in Paris, defeating the North Korean pair of Ri Jong-sik and Kim Kum-yong in the mixed doubles final.

Chen then beat compatriot Sun in the women’s singles final exactly one week ago.

Fan Zhendong overcame a brave challenge from the competition’s surprise package, Truls Moregard from Sweden, to win the men’s singles the next day.

The men’s team dominated Sweden 3-0, leaving just the Japanese women’s team standing in the way of the clean sweep.

The gold won by Chinese great Ma Long in the team event was his sixth.

That took him past divers Wu Minxia and Chen Ruolin, and gymnast Zou Kai, as the Chinese athlete with the most golds at the Olympics.

China have completely dominated table tennis ever since it was introduced as an Olympic sport in 1988 in Seoul.

They won every medal on offer at Sydney in 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016.

Japan dethroned China in the mixed doubles at the delayed Tokyo Olympics.

And China has not always had it all their own way in the men’s singles.

South Korean Ryu Seung-min won in Athens, Jan-Ove Waldner from Sweden took gold in Barcelona, and Yoo Nam-kyu, also from South Korea, triumphed in Seoul.