Top seeds Chen Qi and partner Ma Lin beat Ko Lai-chak and Li Ching of Hong Kong 4-2 today to take the men's doubles gold medal in table tennis and keep China on track for another Olympic title sweep.
The top-seeded Chinese duo, cheered on by a large Chinese crowd, overcame a mid-match challenge from the third-seeded Hong Kong pair to prevail 11-6 11-9 7-11 11-8 8-11 and 11-5.
The Ko and Li pair's silver is Hong Kong's first medal at Athens. Earlier the Danish pair of Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell beat Russians Dmitri Mazunov and Alexei Smirnov 4-2 for men's doubles table tennis bronze. The 16th-seeded Danes won 11-3 11-8 12-14 3-11 11-9 11-8.
China won all the golds and most of the silvers at the last two Olympics in Sydney and Atlanta and were expected to do the same in the Athens tournament so the rules were changed to keep two teams from the same country from meeting in the final.
However, in spite of the new rules, China is still set to sweep gold in all four events for the third consecutive time, with Chinese players going strong in both women's and men's singles.
Zhang, the world number one, will face North Korea's Kim Hyang-mi in the women's singles finals tomorrow.
Filed by Séamus Leonard
