China, Japan to vie for men’s badminton gold

RIO DE JANEIRO: Defending Olympic champions China will face Japan in the men’s table tennis final on Wednesday (today), after beating South Korea in the semis.

While South Korea fought hard to match their opponents point for point in some, they eventually had to admit a 3-0 defeat to the Chinese team, made up of individual gold and silver medallists Ma Long and Zhang Jike as well as world number three Xu Xin.

After a tough first match between Zhang and South Korea’s Jeoung Youngsik, Ma quickly overcome Lee Sangsu in the second and it was wrapped up by Zhang and Xu in the third and doubles match against Jeoung and Joo Saehyuk.

Earlier in the day, the Japanese men’s team avenged their women counterparts’ painful semi-finals loss by beating Germany to secure a spot in the final, and also guaranteed themselves the country’s first medal in the men’s team event in the process.