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Women’s team put China on verge of table tennis clean sweep
RIO DE JANEIRO: Li Xiaoxia, Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning combined to win the women’s team table tennis gold on Tuesday to keep China on target for their third consecutive
RIO DE JANEIRO: Li Xiaoxia, Liu Shiwen and Ding Ning combined to win the women’s team table tennis gold on Tuesday to keep China on target for their third consecutive Games clean sweep of titles. The Chinese women swept aside Germany’s Han Ying, Shan Xiaona, and Petrisse Solja 3-0 to add another gold to the table tennis superpower’s wins last week in the men’s and women’s singles.China’s men’s team were strong favourites to topple Japan in the final medal match on Wednesday. This was China’s 27th gold medal from the last 31 available since table tennis first appeared at an Olympics in Seoul in 1988. For Ding Ning this was a second gold after she defeated Li in the women’s singles final. It was Li who sent China on their way with a 3-0 defeat of Han in the opening match. Then Liu accounted for Solja 3-0. Ding and Liu united to see off Shan and Solja 3-1 to wrap up the best of five tie with room to spare. “We are a team, so we do everything together, we trust each other so we can win all the games,” said Li. “It’s our dream for our homeland to win an Olympic Games gold medal, our dream,” chipped in Liu.
