The 32-year-old clinched his fourth gold medal at his third Olympic Games by winning 11-4, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 3-11, 11-7, celebrating with the “mobot” pose made famous by British distance runner and multiple Olympic champion Mo Farah.

As they have at every Games since 2008, China provided all four singles finalists at Tokyo 2020, Chen Meng having beaten Sun Yingsha to take the women’s title yesterday.

No other country has ever won women’s singles gold.

In the men’s bronze medal match, Germany’s Dimitrij Ovtcharov scraped home against Taiwan’s Lin Yun Ju, saving four match points in the sixth game before winning the deciding seventh.

The 32-year-old won 13-11, 9-11, 6-11, 11-4, 4-11, 15-13, 11-7, earning his fifth Olympic table tennis medal since 2008.