Simone Biles closed her Rio Games with more gymnastics gold.
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China too are aiming for another five gold medals at Rio – which would take them to a haul of 23 – with interest in the badminton in men’s doubles, women’s singles and men’s singles.
As a result, only the English FA were keen to send a team to Rio, but without the support of the other three countries there was never any chance of a Great Britain football team going to Brazil.
Despite losing the Gold medal, Germany has secured the Silver medal, which is Germany’s first Women’s Olympic Table Tennis medal, and first for Europe since Seoul 1988.
Sweden, the team that gratefully accepted Great Britain’s spurned place, will play Germany, the side England beat in the World Cup third-place match, in Friday’s Olympic final at the Maracana.
As it stands, Great Britain are 15 medals behind what they won at the London Games, but they are now ahead of what they were at this stage four years ago.
The Chinese women’s team coach, Kong Linghui, also spoke of the strength of their Japanese opponents, saying that their early exposure to such high-level worldwide competitions at a young age would likely help them become an even tougher force to be reckoned with in four years.
It was an ignominious end to a campaign which began last week with Asian rivals Japan putting an end to their eight-year reign as Olympic men’s team champions.
Tying it 2-2 with a 11-7 fourth set, Xu led 10-8 in the fifth and decider but Mizutani, ranked sixth in the world, served to tie 10-10 before taking it 12-10 to force at least four games.
In a see-saw match that finished well past midnight in front of a typically hostile home crowd, China ended the day on a high, edging reigning champions Brazil 15-13 in a tight final set, and now face the Netherlands in the semifinals.
Russian Federation on 38 medals (12 Gold, 12 Silver, 14 Bronze), followed by Germany on 27 medals (11 Gold, 8 Silver, 8 Bronze) rounded up the fourth and fifth spot respectively.
Compared to the Chinese men’s and women’s teams in Rio, who are all in their mid-to-late twenties, half of the Japanese six player-strong team is in their early twenties alongside the teenage Ito. “This game has given us confidence in playing the Chinese team”, said Mizutani. On the team were the gold and silver medalists from Rio – Ding Ning and Li Xiaoxia – and the No. 1 player in the world, Liu Shiwen.
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The Chinese team, comprising Deng, You, Lin Chaopan, Zhang Chenglong and Liu Yang sat back dejectedly in their chairs after Russian Federation overtook them to clinch silver, with Zhang breaking down in tears afterwards backstage.
