China continued its dominance in table tennis after the country's men's team defeated Japan with a 3-1 victory at the ongoing 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro on Wednesday for a clean sweep of the Olympic titles for the third consecutive time.

According to Xinhua, the victory gave the Asian powerhouse its 28th gold medal of the prestigious quadrennial sporting event since the table tennis was introduced at the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea.

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The current world No.1 Ma Long headed the Chinese men's team with fellow Grand Slam winner and Rio's silver medalist Zhang Jike, and the world No. 3 Xu Xin.

On the other hand, Japan's team consisted of the country's top-notch paddler Jun Mizutani, who claimed the bronze medal in Rio, Koki Niwa, and world No. 21 Maharu Yoshumura.

Ma, 28, gave the Chinese side the first victory by blasting the 21-year-old Niwa in straight sets 11-6, 11-9, 11-6.

However, Xu failed to hand Japan its second-straight loss of the championship round after dropping the deciding fifth set 12-10 against Mizutani. The 26-year-old native of Xuzhou, Jiangsu's downfall left the match tied at 1-1.

The following doubles match was intense as Xu, who paired up with the 2012 London Games gold medalist Zhang, yielded the first game 11-4 to the Japanese duo of Niwa and Yoshumura before bouncing back by taking the three succeeding sets 11-6, 11-9, 11-5 to move one win closer to the championship title.

Ma then came up on the court once again to play Yoshimura. According to ESPN, the match saw the blue-chip Chinese paddler rout Yoshimura to secure China the gold with an 11-1, 11-4, 11-4 win.

TagsMa Long, zhang jike, Xu Xin, ITTF, Rio Olympics 2016, jun mizutani