"I wish you a tolerable Thursday. That's all any of us can hope for," said actress April Winchell (you know, the voice of Clarabelle Cow). While poor Thursday may not enjoy the cachet of some of its associates, it is more than just a go-between for Hump Day and TGIF. In fact, for the Chinese Paralympic team, today was a Thursday to remember. Today in Tokyo, gold medals were awarded in five table tennis team events. It could not have started any better for China, who won the Men's Class 4-5, Women's Class 6-8, Women's Class 1-3, and Men's Class 8 team gold medals in short order, each by a score of 2-0. All that stood in the way of China's perfect day was the Men's Class 3 team from Germany. The two teams had no shortage of shared history, having fought for the gold in the last two Paralympics as well. Both times, in London 2012 and Rio 2016, Germany settled for silver. Today in Tokyo, there was cause for hope in German hearts as Thomas Brüchle and Thomas Schmidberger teamed up to win the opening doubles match. Brüchle then ceded the advantage to recently crowned men's singles champion Feng Panfeng in the first singles match. With the gold medal on the line, it would all come down to China's Zhai Xiang, world #6, and the aforementioned Schmidberger, world #2. Again, German hearts rose as Schmidberger claimed a 2-0 lead. Then, slowly but inexorably, Zhai worked his way back into the match. Finally, the deciding match came down to a deciding game, which went to the man with all the momentum, Zhai Xiang by a (7-11, 10-12, 11-4, 11-4, 11-4) scoreline. "We prepared for a difficult match but they were even better," said Zhai of his familiar rivals. "They are so steady. No matter what the ball kept coming back. After the doubles, my confidence was shattered. I tend to take some time to warm up. In singles I was 2-0 down again. I managed to calm down from the third game and not have too many thoughts." Although Germany made them work for it, China managed to keep their doppelgängers at arm's length yet again. "We’ve played them in 2012, in 2016 and now again," marveled Zhai. "Our friendship runs deep. In London it also went to a decider. We wanted to retain our gold so we felt huge pressure." With a comeback for the ages, Zhai Xiang was the toast of his table tennis-loving homeland. Pretty tolerable, for a Thursday.
