On the female side, Liu provided a scintillating exhibition of world-class play to sweep aside her less experienced compatriot Zhu Yuling 11-6, 11-4, 13-11, 11-7, to add the singles title to the team gold and doubles silver she took earlier in the week.

Most significantly, the 23-year-old also won her country's 150th gold medal of the Games, as they cemented their continental domination for the eighth Games in a row.

This was swiftly followed by a 151st gold as Xu, who had earlier demolished crowd favourite Joo Sae-huk of South Korea in four straightforward games in his semi-final, overcame Fan Zhendong in a much tougher six-set encounter.

Fan, the 17-year-old who won the Summer Youth Olympic Games in August and is considered the sport's biggest rising star, played well and rallied hard but was ultimately outshone by Xu, the left-handed penhold player who raised his game at the vital points.

Overcome with emotion to the extent that he fell to the ground after match point, the 24-year-old champion described the win as "an important platform for me to prove myself, and move closer to my Rio [Olympic] dream".

"Hence this victory is really meaningful to me," he added.

Elsewhere on the final day, medals were won in two further sports, with South Korea completing a clean sweep of the seven soft tennis events, as they secured victories over Japan in both the men and women's team finals. 

Almutairi Rasheed took gold for Kuwait in karate ©AFP/Getty Images



Three gold medals were on offer in karate, where Japan and Kuwait contested two of the three finals.