A familiar script unfolded when China met North Korea in the table tennis mixed team final yesterday - the Chinese won convincingly again.

Chen Meng put the favourites in front at the Toa Payoh Sports Hall with a 11-5, 5-11, 11-3, 11-4 win over Kim Song I.

And Cheng Jingqi ended the proceedings by defeating Kim Jin Su 12-10, 11-2, 11-6.

Singapore and Chinese Taipei took the bronze.

With one gold in the bag, Chen Meng revealed his team's confidence of completing a four-gold sweep at the inaugural Asian Youth Games.

For China, dominating the sport at both youth and senior levels has become a habit.

In the Beijing Olympics last year, they monopolised the top three positions in the men and women's singles, and won both team titles.

Jingqi said: 'Teams fear us. Some are beaten even before the match starts.'

It is not hard to see why: Since 1975, China have bagged 28 out of 34 men and women's world team championship titles.

But Japan's 14-year-old Koki Niwa is hoping to shift the balance of power.

In April, the youngest paddler to represent his country at a senior level caused a stir when he reached the last 64 of the World Table Tennis Championships.

Japan's chef de mission and former world champion Koji Kimura, 68, said: 'In terms of talent, he is the best Japanese paddler I've seen in my lifetime.'

Already, there are great expectations on the shoulders of the rising star from the land of the rising sun.

Kimura, who is also the vice-president of the Japan Table Tennis Association, is hopeful that Koki can be a gold medallist at the 2020 Olympics.

Koki, the 2008 International Table Tennis Federation Junior Circuit Finals boys' singles champion, shares that vision.

It is what motivates the fleet-footed attacker to train six hours a day, and the reason he left his hometown of Hokkaido for Aomori's Yamada School, where most of the Japanese team are based.

This means that he is constantly away from his mother, Mika, and father Takashi - a former paddler and his first coach.

But Koki, who will face Vietnam's Le Tuan Anh in the boys' singles round of 16 today, knows that this is a sacrifice that has to be made.

The boys' under-15 world No. 4, who is ranked behind three Chinese, said: 'Playing table tennis is more important than spending time with my family.

'It is the only way I can achieve my dreams. When they are realised, I will be able to do anything for my family.'