China’s domination of the table tennis event at the Olympic Games continued in the 30th Olympiad in London as the Men’s team sealed a fourth gold medal out of four for the overwhelming favourites.
After they had already seen Zhang Jike win the men’s singles, Li Xiaoxia win the women’s singles and the Chinese team win the women’s event, their ‘perfect’ Olympics was sealed with the men’s team victory over South Korea.
In a repeat of Beijing 2008 where they contested, and won, all four finals, the Chinese were not to be stopped at London 2012 with a clean sweep of the board again at the ExCeL in East London.
The men’s final was as much of a procession as the women’s final had proved on Tuesday. While the women won every match 3-0 in their march to the title, the men had suffered a couple of defeats.
Firstly, against the Russian doubles pair of Alexey Smirnov and Kirill Skachkov in the first round before, more notably, Olympic Champion Zhang Jike was beaten by top European star Timo Boll in the semi-final.
Boll, who finally returned to form after a poor singles run, saw Germany home to a bronze medal with two triumphs in a 3-1 victory against Hong Kong.
The final itself proved less troublesome for the Chinese as they coasted past South Korea 3-0, with their opponents settling for a silver medal.
World number 2, Ma Long, started the parade with a comfortable 3-1 win over Athens 2004 Olympic Champion Ryu Seung Min before 2012 Olympic Champion, Zhang Jike, doubled the lead with a 3-1 victory against expert defender Joo Sae Hyuk.
The win was sealed when Wang Hao and Ma Long combined in the doubles to beat Oh Sang Eun and Ryu Seung Min 3-0 to seal yet another team Olympic gold medal for the masters of the modern game.
Is there any stopping China at Rio 2016? The message so far is a resounding no. For all the coverage and reports on GB from both inside, outside, before, during and after the Olympic Games click here for our specialist London 2012 website.
London 2012 Medals list:
Men’s Team:
Gold: China
Silver: South Korea
Bronze: Germany
Women’s Team:
Gold: China
Silver: Japan
Bronze: Singapore
Men’s Singles:
Gold: Zhang Jike (CHN)
Silver: Wang Hao (CHN)
Bronze: Dimitrij Ovtcharov (GER)
Women’s Singles:
Gold: Li Xiaoxia (CHN)
Silver: Ding Ning (CHN)
Bronze: Feng Tianwei (SIN)