China completed a clean sweep of all four table tennis gold medals when they beat South Korea 3-0 in the men’s team final on Wednesday. Men’s singles champion Zhang Jike and Ma Long, the world number two, set China on their way with a 2-0 lead before Zhang and Wang Hao, the Olympic silver medallist, took the doubles for a 3-0 winning advantage.
Profiting from being on home soil in Beijing four years ago, the Asian powerhouse won every top prize on offer. That has proved to not just be a flash in the pan following more domination at theLondon 2012 Games. Indeed, China has achieved a maximum haul of four golds and two silvers following the efforts of their men today. Republic of Korea’s trio of Ryu Seung-min, Joo Sae-hyuk and Oh Sang-eun had no answer to their opponents and fell to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat.
The victory followed up the Team success of China’s women yesterday as well as the Individual golds claimed by Zhang and Li Xiaoxia. Germany took the bronze medal as their trio of Timo Boll, Dimitrij Ovtcharov andBastian Steger beat Hong Kong 3-1. Ma got China off to the perfect start by cruising past Athens 2004 Singles champion Ryu 3-1. The clash between Zhang and Joo was closer. In a match of long rallies, many points saw Zhang deliver forehand smashes and loops that his opponent tried to chop back. More often than not, the world number one came out on top, and he sealed the encounter 3-1.
