World record holder Liu Xiang used just 12.95 seconds to win the
men's 110 meters hurdles title at the Osaka athletics worlds on
Friday. But for China, it was a 24-year wait to have a male world
champion from track and field.
The 24-year-old Olympic champion became the first Chinese man to
win the top honor at the world championships history -- and it is
in Osaka, his lucky place, where he had taken four consecutive
Grand Prix titles since 2004.
Liu is also the first Asian to win a gold at the 11th world
championships, which has only two days to go.
Liu, who also holds the world record of 12.88 seconds, looked to
be powerful as he overcame a slow start, fought back from behind to
win the gold before a crowd of enthusiastic Chinese fans.
American Terrence Trammell finished second in 12.99 and his
teammate David Payne was third in 13.02.
Liu jumped to the air after crossing the finish line, took a
national flag, waved to the boisterous crowd, and then ran a
victory lap with Shi Dongpeng, his training partner who finished
the fifth in a personal best time of 13.19.
The spectators roared to Liu at the Nagai Stadium.
"I am very, very excited," a jubilant Liu said. "I am the world
champion now. I am the best."
His long-time coach Sun Haiping told reporters that the victory
was not easy.
"I never saw him more excited," Sun said. "He just recovered
from a fever and was not in good form in the past few days."
But Liu said if he had started well, he would have finished
within 12.90 seconds.
"But the win is enough, I have shown the world what the speed
is," he said.
He admitted that he had too much pressure during the
championships, so he was very nervous before the race.
"I have never been so nervous, even more nervous than in the
Athens Olympics," he said. "Too many people in China are watching
me now. In Athens, I was little known. But I overcame all the
pressure and tension and won the gold medal."
Trammell, silver medalist in the previous two Olympic Games,
said that Liu was too strong for him.
"I felt I could win, but Liu just had the better race - I made
no excuse. I did the best I could, I gave my best and ran under 13
seconds. This is my second fastest time, so I cannot be
disappointed."
It was not the first time for Liu to rewrite the Chinese
athletics history. He became the first Chinese man to win an
athletics Olympic gold in 2004 with a world record-tying time of
12.91.
Since then he has been China's No. 1 sports star, overshining
even the country's multi-Olympic champions of table tennis and
diving. He is idolized by youngsters all across the country and
earning millions of US dollars every year.
It was Liu's fourth competition in the world championships. In
2001 Edmonton, he failed to enter the final and in 2003 Paris he
won the bronze, which was the first medal since former world high
jump record holder Zhu Jianhua won the bronze in the 1983 world
championships in Helsinki.
Liu went on to win at the 2004 Olympics, then took the silver in
Helsinki worlds in 2005, and set a new world record in July 2006 in
Switzerland.
Unlike the Athens Olympics, he came to Osaka as the hot
favorite. Even legendary hurdler Ed Moses, who won 122 consecutive
400m hurdles races from 1977 to 1987, had tipped Liu to be the
"star of the show" in Osaka.
With less than one year away from the Beijing Olympic Games, Liu
said," Retaining the champion is his goal but he will not give
himself too much pressure.
"I don't want to think too much about the Beijing Olympics," he
said. "No pressure, just run for the gold."
(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2007)
