Table tennis legend Ma signs off in golden style

China's legendary table tennis player Ma Long brought down the curtain on his Asian Games career in style by helping secure the country's eighth consecutive men's team gold medal at the continental showpiece on Tuesday.

Ma, a 34-year-old veteran and five-time Olympic gold medalist, overcame a second-game scare to beat South Korea's Park Gang-hyeon in straight games in their singles match, and help clinch a 3-0 victory for China in the men's team final at the 19th Asian Games at the Gongshu Canal Sports Park Gymnasium.

Ma's win against Park followed teammates' Wang Chuqin's 3-1 triumph over Lim Jong-hoon and world No 1 Fan Zhendong's 3-0 rout of An Jae-hyun, in the eighth consecutive Asian Games final showdown between the two countries, a run dating back to 1994.

As a multiple winner of every major individual and team title the sport has to offer, Ma, who is not competing in the Games's singles event, admitted that this was his Asian Games farewell.

"By helping my team win this gold, I've accomplished my mission in Hangzhou. My teammates will continue to compete in the singles and doubles, I will stay with them and help out whenever they need a training partner," said Ma, who won back-to-back singles gold medals at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

"I will continue training though for the next tournament. I've been used to expecting the next Asian Games after the last one throughout my career. But this time will be the last," said Ma, who made his Games debut in 2006.

With the win, China underlined its dominance of Asian Games table tennis, with the country having now won more than 120 table tennis medals.

The last time South Korea won the men's table tennis team gold was in 1990. Since then, they have suffered eight straight losses to China in the finals.

"We did prepare a lot for this final and our plan was to push hard to challenge the Chinese players' mental strength," said South Korean head coach Joo Se-Hyuk. "It proved that the Chinese are so strong mentally and we will congratulate them for such as a dominating performance again."