LONDON — China stayed on course for another Olympic Games table tennis gold medal sweep when their women retained the team title with a 3-0 thumping win over Japan yesterday. China’s men will attempt to capture the fourth and last gold of the tournament, for which they are odds on favourites, when they face South Korea in today’s title match.
There was rarely much doubt that Li Xaioxia, the Olympic women’s singles champion, and Ding Ning, the world champion, would control yesterday’s final, and so it proved. Li generated China’s winning momentum with a 11-6, 9-11, 11-2, 11-5 success against Ai Fukuhara. Singapore won the bronze medal, beating South Korea 3-0, with world No 8 Feng Tianwei getting off to a momentum-boosting win over Kim Kyung-Ah, the world No 5 by 11-9, 11-8, 4-11, 13-11.
“I think this is the last time this team will be playing together so we cherished the opportunity,” said Feng, referring to her team-mates Li Jiawei and Wang Yuegu. “But I never thought about winning a medal before.” — AFP
