The Chinese paddlers proved to be dominant at the world table tennis arena as they took three out of the four gold medals on offer at the Kuwait Open here on Thursday.

The only gold that slipped out of their hands was at the men's doubles where South Korean Lee Jin-Kwon and Ryu Seung-Min defeated Cheung Yuk and Li Ching of Chinese Hong Kong in straight sets 11-3,11-8, 11-8 and 11-3.

Both the men's and women's singles finals became the all-Chinese affairs as they stopped all the others in the semifinals earlier on Thursday.

In the women's final, Guo Yue beat three-time world champion Wang Nan 11-13, 11-7, 11-7, 20-18 and 11-3, while budding star Ma Long outclassed second-ranked veteran Ma Lin 11-3, 4-11, 5-11, 11-8, 11-5 and 11-6 for the men's singles crown.

The women's doubles gold medal was also won by Chinese Li Xiaoxia and Zhang Yining who beat fellow Chinese Guo Yan and Wang Nan 11-4, 9-11, 14-12, 11-5 and 11-7.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2007)