Rio de Janeiro: China continued to show why they are the goliath of table tennis yesterday with a dominant win over Germany to take the women’s team gold, the champions dropping only one game in the final. In a 3-0 whitewash that lasted just one-and-a-half hours, China’s Li Xiaoxia and Liu Shiwen utilised booming smashes and prodigious spin shots to overcome Han Ying and Petrissa Solja of Germany without dropping a game in the opening singles matches.
Germany showed a little resistance in the doubles match when they took the third game but Liu and her partner Ding Ning soon regained control to complete a resounding victory. “Losing that game made the competition more anxious and exciting... But of course I didn’t want to lose any game,” Liu said. “I’d admit I was anxious to win the match and the gold medal but we also had to allow our opponent to participate in a gold medal match. We eventually won so I’m very happy anyway,” she said.
Despite the lop-sided manner of the defeat, the silver represents the best ever result for Germany in women’s table tennis after the country had failed to win a medal of any kind until they defeated Japan in a four-hour marathon in the semis.
“The fact that we won one game makes us happy”, said Germany’s Han. “Skills-wise the gap between us and China is simply too big, so this is the first time I’ve not felt pressure while playing a match, it was just about enjoying table tennis,” she said.
China has won 26 out of 30 golds awarded in table tennis since the sport joined the Olympic program in 1988, claiming gold and silver in both singles events in Rio so far and are favourites to win the men’s team title.
Fifteen-year-old Mima Ito of Japan became the youngest ever Olympic table tennis medallist after she helped her team to clinch the bronze medal earlier in the day, easing to victory over Singapore’s Feng Tianwei to secure a 3-1 win.

China, Japan to vie for men’s team gold
Defending champions China will face Japan in the men’s final, after beating South Korea in the semis. While South Korea fought hard to match their opponents point for point in some sets during the Monday meeting, they eventually had to admit a 3-0 defeat to the Chinese team, made up of individual gold and silver medallists Ma Long and Zhang Jike as well as world number three Xu Xin.
After a tough first match between Zhang and South Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik, Ma quickly overcome Lee Sangsu in the second and it was wrapped up by Zhang and Xu in the third and doubles match against Jeoung and Joo Saehyuk.
Earlier in the day the Japanese men’s team avenged their women counterparts’ painful semi-finals loss by beating Germany to secure a spot in the final, and also guaranteed themselves the country’s first medal in the men’s team event in the process.
While Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov started strongly to take the first game over Maharu Yoshimura, they eventually faltered to lose 3-1 to Japan, who were anchored by the explosive spins of individual bronze medallist and world number six Jun Mizutani. Later yesterday, Germany beat South Korea to win bronze.