Jun Mizutani and Mima Ito earned a double place in sports history on Monday night by winning the first-ever Olympic title in the newly added mixed doubles event of table tennis and giving Japan its first-ever Olympic gold medal in the sport.
Mizutani and Ito combined to defeat the highly touted Chinese pair of Xu Xin and Liu Shiwen in the final at Tokyo Metropolitan Gym.
En route to the final, the pair survived an intense quarterfinal battle with Germany's Patrick Franziska and Petrissa Solja that went the full seven sets. The Japanese fought off seven match points before winning the final set 16-14 that lasted 18 minutes.
It is the third Olympic medal for the 32-year-old Mizutani, who won a silver in the men's team event and bronze in the singles at the 2016 Rio Olympics. The 20-year-old Ito also has a bronze medal from the women's team event in Rio.
The two both hail from the city of Iwata, Shizuoka Prefecture, and first became acquainted with each other years ago when Ito was a young prodigy.
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