Chinese Ma Lin(L) and Chen Qi show their gold medals at the reward podium at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 21, 2004. They beat Ko Lai Chak and Li Ching of Chinese Hong Kong to take the gold medal of the men's table tennis doubles. (Xinhua Photo/Xu Jiajun)  

Chinese Ma Lin(R) and Chen Qi beats Ko Lai Chak(R) and Li Ching of Chinese Hong Kong to take the gold medal of the men's table tennis double final match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004.(Xinhua Photo/Xu Jiajun)

Chinese Ma Lin(R) and Chen Qi beats Ko Lai Chak(R) and Li Ching of Chinese Hong Kong to take the gold medal of the men's table tennis double final match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004.(Xinhua Photo/Xu Jiajun)

Chinese Ma Lin(R) and Chen Qi beats Ko Lai Chak(R) and Li Ching of Chinese Hong Kong to take the gold medal of the men's table tennis double final match at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games August 20, 2004.(Xinhua Photo/Xu Jiajun)

By sportswriter Zhou Xiaozheng     

    ATHENS, Aug. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- Men's doubles pair Chen Qi and Ma Lin took the second table tennis gold for China at the Athens Olympic Games here Saturday after beating a Chinese Hong Kong pair4-2 in the men's doubles final.

    Chen and Ma, the top-seeded pair in the Olympic tournament, took their victory 11-6, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8, 8-11 and 11-5.

    But the Chinese Hong Kong players, Li Ching and Ko Lai Chak, also made history as they had won the first ever Olympic medal forHong Kong since the former British-occupied territory returned to China and became a special administrative region on July 1, 1997.

    On his way to the athletes' change room, Ma shed tears of joy while his young partner Chen Qi still looked quite composed.

    The 24-year-old Ma, one of the top gold favorites in the singles in this tournament, suffered a surprise defeat to 39-year-old Swedish veteran Jan-Ove Waldner and failed to reach the singles quarterfinals.

    He and Chen were also put under immense pressure as the other Chinese doubles pair Kong Linghui/Wang Hao crashed out of the last8 after losing to Waldner and his old pal Jorgen Persson.

    But Ma and Chen successfully conquered three strong European pairs from the Netherlands, Poland and Denmark in a row to reach the final, and defended the men's doubles title which had never slipped out of the Chinese hands since the official debut of tabletennis at the Olympic Games in Seoul 1988.

    The fifth Olympic gold in men's doubles, along with the women'sdoubles gold won by Chinese pair Wang Nan/Zhang Yining Friday, hasonce again proved China's dominance in the doubles events.

    "We have met the great difficulty at this Olympic Games, but wemanaged to overcome it with the collective efforts of the whole team," said Liu Guoliang, coach of the Chinese men's team.

    The International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has changed the draw rule for the Olympic tournament to make it impossible forthe Chinese to turn the doubles finals into their domestic affairs,as they did at two previous Games.

    The new rules stipulate that players from the same association be drawn to the same half of the competition.

    "Now we are just half way in achieving our goals," said Liu. "There is still the men's singles gold waiting for us to strive for."

    China has two world top players, world No.1 Wang Liqin and No.4Wang Hao, in the singles semifinals, but they will have to play each other as they are in the same half.

    China has had a clean sweep of all table tennis medals, eight in number, at the previous two Olympic Games in Atlanta and Sydney.Enditem