Olympic table tennis: Gold for Chinese men's team

Chinese Men’s table tennis team after winning the team gold on Wednesday against South Korea.

London, Aug 9 (IANS/RIA Novosti):

China’s men’s table tennis team put in a dominating performance to take gold on Wednesday, thrashing South Korea in the final.

With the latest win, China has made a clean sweep in table tennis for the second consecutive Olympics. It was the 24th gold medal that China won at the Olympic table tennis competition since its national sport was introduced at the 1988 Seoul Games, Xinhua reported.

On Wednesday, the South Koreans won just two sets as China’s Ma Long, Wang Hao and Zhang Jike wrapped up the match 3-0 against Joo Saehyuk, Oh Sangeun and Ryu Seungmin.

“I feel like my neck is stretching,” Zhang said of winning his second gold medal after triumphing in the singles.

“There may only be three people in this team but this is for the millions in China watching us,” Wang said.

Ma beat Ryu 11-6, 11-6, 6-11, 11-4 in a quickfire first game before Joo made life difficult for Zhang, but his Chinese opponent prevailed 11-9, 5-11, 11-6, 11-8 in the second game.

The doubles game became the decider, with Wang and Zhang demonstrating their class in an 11-4, 11-8, 11-6 victory over Oh and Ryu that lasted just 15 minutes.

Earlier, Germany beat Hong Kong 3-1 to take the bronze medal.