GUANGZHOU, China (Reuters) – Former Olympic champion Liu Xiang raised a collective sigh of relief across China yesterday when he coasted to victory in his opening heat of the 110m hurdles to remain on track for his third straight Asian Games title.
Liu burst strongly from the blocks, quickly settling into his smooth technique to clear all 10 hurdles cleanly before easing up at the line for a time of 13.48 seconds, more than half a second off his personal best of 12.88s.
He had earlier emerged from the tunnel to thunderous cheers from the home crowd at Guangzhou’s Aoti Main Stadium and warmed up in a black T-shirt with the Chinese characters “Hidden Strength” written on it.
Waving his “number one” finger at the cameras and wagging his tongue, Liu appeared relaxed and soaked up the applause.
“I felt good today,” said Liu. “The weather is good as well, not too cold.”
Liu’s was the fastest qualifying time ahead of Park Tae-kyong of South Korea and Saudi Arabia’s Ahmed Khader Almuwallad.
Shi Dongpeng, Liu’s long-time understudy and tipped by some to strip him of his Asian Games title, failed to fire in his heat but did enough to qualify for the final.
Liu has struggled to recapture his best since limping out of the Bird’s Nest stadium at the 2008 Beijing Games, disappointing millions of home fans hoping to see him defend his Athens Olympic title.
Despite struggling with injury and having surrendered most of his major titles, Liu remains a sporting icon with a profile rivalled only by basketball’s Yao Ming in his home country.
His gold medal at the 2004 Olympics and subsequent capture of the world record and world title in 2006 and 2007 respectively made him a rare commodity, a Chinese sportsman dominating in a relatively high-profile sport.
