Doubles Down, Double to Go

China’s Deng Yapeng and Qiao Hong retained their Olympic table tennis doubles crown and moved closer to repeating their Barcelona medals sweep by winning places in the singles semifinals.

Deng and Qiao, the world champions, beat compatriots Liu Wei and Qiao Yunping, 18-21, 25-23, 22-20, 21-14, for the doubles gold medal.

Later both Deng and Qiao advanced to the semifinals of the women’s singles, in which they won gold and silver medals, respectively, in Barcelona.

Qiao was a 21-18, 21-19, 21-16 winner over Japan’s Chire Koyoma, who was He Zhili and a Chinese champion before fleeing the pressures of its state-run table tennis program in the 1980s.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

TABLE TENNIS

Women / Doubles

GOLD--Deng Yaping and Qiao Hong, China

SILVER--Liu Wei and Qiao Yunping, China

BRONZE--Park Hae-jung and Ryu Ji-hae, South Korea