China claims doubles gold

The top-seeded Chinese duo, with boistrous support from a large Chinese crowd, overcame a mid-match challenge from the third-seeded Hong Kong pair to prevail 11-6 11-9 7-11 11-8 8-11 and 11-5.

The Ko and Li pair's silver is Hong Kong's first medal at Athens.

"The match was close because the Hong Kong team were well prepared," Ma said. "They are one of the best in the world and the biggest threat to China."

After the final, Hong Kong's Ko said: "We rose above our normal level."

Earlier the Danish pair of Michael Maze and Finn Tugwell beat Russians Dmitri Mazunov and Alexei Smirnov 4-2 for men's doubles table tennis bronze. The 16th-seeded Danes won 11-3 11-8 12-14 3-11 11-9 11-8.

On Friday, China's Wang Nan took her third Olympic gold, teaming up with Zhang Yining to sweep Lee Eun-sil and Seok Eun-mi of South Korea 4-0 in the women's table tennis doubles.

China won all the golds and most of the silvers at the last two Olympics in Sydney and Atlanta and were expected to do the same in the Athens tournament so the rules were changed to keep two teams from the same country from meeting in the final.

Nonetheless, China is still set to sweep gold in all four events for the third consecutive time, with Chinese players going strong in both women's and men's singles.

Zhang, the world number one, will face North Korea's Kim Hyang-mi in the women's singles finals on Sunday.

World number one Wang Liqin and his Chinese compatriot Wang Hao will meet in the men's semi-finals on Sunday. In the other semi-final, South Korea's Ryu Seung-min will face former Olympic gold medallist Jan-Ove Waldner of Sweden.