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Ma lands elusive gold to seal slam
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THERE was one title missing from the trophy-laden resume of Ma Long, the captain of the all-conquering Chinese men’s table tennis team. Not anymore.
On Thursday he became only the fifth man to complete the grand slam of world championship, world cup and Olympic titles after landing singles gold in Rio to cement his place among the greats of the sport.
The world No. 1 did so by beating teammate Zhang Jike, who won gold four years ago at the London Games.
Ma had missed out on a place in the 2012 singles draw following a series of qualifying losses despite being the world No. 1.
Instead, he won gold in the London team event but it was individual glory he craved.
“After so many years of playing table tennis of course my dream was winning this gold so I’m very happy that I’ve achieved it,” Ma told reporters on Thursday.
“This gold medal to me is a very good outcome from the many years I’ve spent in my professional career.”
The 27-year-old has held the No. 1 spot since March 2015 and has won every major table tennis title.
He has the most ITTF World Tour singles titles and is one of two players to sweep all four medals at the Asian Championship.
With the Olympic medal, he joins Zhang, Sweden’s Jan-Ove Waldner, 2000 gold medalist Kong Linghui and Chinese national team coach Liu Guoliang in achieving the grand slam.
While he made some fans nervous by losing two games in his fourth-round match against South Korea’s Jeoung Young-sik before staging a 4-2 comeback, he was ruthless in the final as he beat Zhang 4-0 (14-12, 11-5, 11-4, 11-4).
The 27-year-old, who shows off his collection of superhero action figures on his Facebook page, is the captain of the dominating Chinese national team, one of the most difficult teams to represent and whose training includes military drills.
Ma only had praise for his beaten teammate Zhang.
“Jike and I grew up together and we played together, and yes we are competitors but we are also brothers, but in sport you know that there are winners and losers,” Ma said.
“In the past few years Jike was the best in the Chinese team and he set a good example for me so for many years people nicknamed us after (the astrological sign) Gemini. And today Jike actually fought very well and helped me to get this gold.”
The win continued China’s domination of table tennis. On Wednesday, Ding Ning won the women’s gold by beating teammate Li Xiaoxia, the defending champion from London.
China has won all but four gold medals since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988 — and all the golds at the past two Games. If its men and women can take the team titles, as expected, they will have swept gold in Rio de Janeiro, too.
Ma’s victory marks the third straight Olympics where Chinese men have taken both gold and silver. Chinese women have won every Olympic gold medal in table tennis.
In the bronze-medal match, Jun Mizutani of Japan beat former No. 1 Vladimir Samsonov of Belarus 4-1.
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