Third in the medals table, China faces worst haul since 1996

Fukuhara, 27, ended up bawling again-but this time in victory.

South Korean table tennis player Joo Sae-hyuk hangs his head during a match against Ma Long of China during the men’s team semifinals at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics on August 15, 2016.

“Whether we won or lost, I felt as captain that I had to control my emotions”, Fukuhara said.

“If we missed out on a medal, I know it would have eaten Mima up for the next four years, more than it would have me or Kasumi”. Fukuhara was in commanding position with the game on the line and ripped forehand after forehand into the corner.

China’s sports system had been enormously successful since the country returned to the Olympic fold in 1984, culminating with the host nation topping the medals table at the 2008 Games it hosted with only a slight dip into second place behind the United States in London four years later.

Next up was Kasumi Ishikawa, the top ranked Japanese player, who lived up to her reputation by dismissing Feng Tianwei in three closely contested sets. But she struggled to find her own way to lead the team and develop the right chemistry.

Laura Trott became the first female athlete representing Britain to win a fourth Olympic gold medal after wrapping up women’s omnium title.

After the disappointing semifinal defeat, Ishikawa took charge and tried to cheer up Fukuhara and Ito in preparing for the bronze medal match.

“Laugh or cry, this was it so I gave it everything I had”, Ito said.

Ito, however, might be maturing faster than Fukuhara thinks.

World number one Li Shiwen then disposed of Petrissa Solja 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-4) before the doubles pair of Li Shiwen and Ding beat Shan and Solja 3-1 (11-6, 11-5, 9-11, 11-7) as Germany won their first and only game of the final. Li Ping, who won in the mixed doubles event during the 2009 World Table Tennis Champions in Yokohama, left the Chinese national team in 2014 and started playing for Qatar (link in Chinese) in 2015.

Liu actually alluded to that when she dropped a game in the final match, saying, “I do need to allow my competitors to take part in this game and make it more interesting”.

“Of course there is a lot of pressure on us because we want to win all the golds”, she said. She still had the team event to look forward to at the time. Then, after throwing away two match points in the fourth, they saved a game point from Singapore and kept on going, taking the next two points to win the game and the match. “But we have a lot of confidence in our abilities to win because we have such a strong team”.

Their opponents, unexpected finalists who outlasted the 2012 London Olympic runner-up Japan in full five games in Monday’s semis, chopped just one off 10 sets in total, but should be satisfied for a silver, a first ever Olympic medal in history for Germany’s women paddlers.