RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - China completed their sweep of the table tennis gold medals at the Rio Olympics on Wednesday after their men's team defeated Japan 3-1 in the final.

With the win, China have now won 28 out of 32 golds awarded since table tennis became an Olympic sport in 1988.

After Japan dropped the opening singles match quickly to Olympic champion Ma Long, Jun Mizutani defeated world No. 3 Xu Xin in a thrilling 3-2 battle of spins and smashes to tie the score at 1-1.

Japan's Maharu Yoshimura and Koki Niwa claimed the first game of their doubles match against Zhang Jike and Xu before losing 3-1.

Chinese team captain Ma then wrapped up the win by beating Yoshimura 11-1, 11-4, 11-4.

Earlier on Wednesday, Germany beat South Korea to claim the bronze medal, with Timo Boll playing through an injury to win the deciding match.