Cuba's Daron Robles(R), and China's Liu Xiang clear a gate as they compete in the men's 110m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011. Source:CFP
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Cuba's Daron Robles(R), and China's Liu Xiang clear a gate as they compete in the men's 110m hurdles final at the World Athletics Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Monday, Aug. 29, 2011. Source:CFP |
Three years after his injury withdrawal from the Beijing Olympic Games, China's star hurdler Liu Xiang regained form as he dramatically took silver at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu on Monday night.
Liu was shoulder-to-shoulder with original winner Dayron Robles until the last hurdle. Placing third at the finish line, Liu was later awarded silver after IAAF disqualified Robles for disrupting Liu.
Liu clocked 13.27 after his blistering pace abruptly slowed at the last hurdle. Video and photo evidence later confirmed that Robles had intruded into Liu’s lane and made disrupting hand contacts. IAAF made the ruling after an appeal by the Chinese delegation.
Cuba made a protest, but it was rejected by the organizers.
The medal for U.S. emerging star Jason Richardson who ran in 13.16 was changed from silver to gold.
In spite of missing the chance to step on the top podium, Liu believed he had proved his competitiveness and recovery, both physically and mentally, from the nightmare-like injury that forced him out of the Beijing Games.
"I felt like someone touched my elbow and I lost my balance for a while but then I managed to recover," said Liu.
"It happens all the time in the competitions. I am OK with everything that happened today and this is a legacy to me. I tried my best (and got) no regret."
Liu also said he didn't care much about the color of the medal.
Liu winced in pain and limped off the track during the men's 110m hurdles first heat at the Beijing Games, leaving the 60,000-plus spectators at the Bird's Nest stadium and millions of home audience watching in front of television in shock.
But Liu claimed one day after his withdrawal that he would run even faster when he fully recovered from the tendon injury. And in the following three years he gave himself all out trying to carry out his words.
After a 13-month absence during which he received a surgery on his right Achilles tendon in the United States in December 2008, Liu returned to competition in style by finishing second in 13.15 at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix on Sept. 20, 2009.
From then on, the 2004 Olympic champion continued to claimed titles in the Chinese National Games and the Asian Championships in 2009, as well as the Asian Games in 2010.
After clocking a decent 13.09 seconds to win the gold medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, the still confident but more mature Liu set his eyes on the worlds and Olympics.
Striving to return to his peak form, Liu adopted to a new technique of approaching the first hurdle with seven steps instead of eight this season, which proved effective in his recent races.
He beat American David Oliver with a winning time of 13.07 seconds to claim the title in the Shanghai Diamond League this May, the first race after he switched to the new technique. And Liu clocked his after-injury personal best of 13.00 at the Prefontaine Classic meeting in Eugene in June.
Now with the World Championship silver in hand, Liu should be more confident. He has shown his quality in his first Championship final clash with world's top runners -- Robles, this year's fastest man David Oliver of the United States, and the rising star Richardson.
If Liu could make good use of the one year time left ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games to improve his new technique and keep away from further injuries, the rise of an even faster Liu in London will not be a "mission impossible."