Paddlers assured of twin Rio golds
Print Edition
IN another Chinese duel, Ding Ning ended up with Olympic gold.
Ding beat teammate Li Xiaoxia in the women’s table tennis final on Wednesday, reversing the result from four years ago.
The men’s final later yesterday will also be an all-China affair with world No. 1 Ma Long taking on defending champion Zhang Jike.
When the 26-year-old Ding lost to Li in the final at the 2012 London Games, she broke down in tears. In Rio de Janeiro, there were tears again as she dropped to her knees in celebration.
“I feel that I am more mature than I was four years ago, and I feel that both parties showcased very high standards in today’s final,” Ding said afterwards.
The Olympic win gives Ding a grand slam of titles after her brace of World Cup wins and two world championships.
Li, 28, said she had given her best. She said she had not trained sufficiently over the last four years because of injuries and had vacillated on retiring.
“I do think if I had spent one year properly training I feel that I would have won today’s match. I can say that with certainty,” she said. “But I have no regrets.”
The China vs China final reflected the country’s continued domination of the sport. World No. 1 Liu Shiwen watched the duel from the sidelines after failing to be picked for the singles.
The tense match, which came down to a deciding seventh game, was filled with long rallies, lighting quick smashes, looping topspin forehands and stretching defensive saves.
After nearly every point, the winner raised her fist, let out a sharp yell and stalked away from the table. Ding, a lefthander, relied on a crouching, tomahawk-style serve. Li often fanned herself with her bat while awaiting serve.
The rivals went back and forth over the first three games, the medal podium standing in shadows next to their spotlighted table. Ding finally prevailed 11-9, 5-11, 14-12, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7.
Chinese women have won every singles gold since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988. Before the Rio de Janeiro Games, China had won all but four of the table tennis gold medals at the Olympics. The country took all the golds at the past two Games, and it has made a good start to doing it again in Rio. Each nation is only allowed two players in singles.
Earlier, Kim Song I of North Korea won the bronze by beating veteran Ai Fukuhara of Japan.
The Ma-Zhang faceoff later yesterday guarantees that Rio will be the third straight Olympics where Chinese men will take both gold and silver.
Ma beat Japan’s Jun Mizutani 4-2 in the first semifinal.
In the other semifinal, Zhang, whose first name was inspired by Brazilian soccer star Zico, beat Vladimir Samsonov, a 40-year-old from Belarus and former world No. 1, 4-1.
Zhang has had erratic performances since his London victory, and there are two Chinese men ranked ahead of him, but he also has a reputation for showing up for big matches.
Zhang won the first three games, each by only two points. Samsonov took the fourth, using his size advantage to send backhand winners down the edges of the table at steep angles. But Zhang narrowly won the fifth game to reach the finals.
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