With reigning World champion Allen Johnson not in the final following his second-round fall, the door was wide open for Asian champion and record holder Xiang Liu of China to claim his first major global title following a bronze medal at the Paris World Championships and a silver at the Budapest World Indoors.
The 21-year-old World Junior record holder did not disappoint tonight and to those who might have regretted to watch Johnson and Xiang battle it up, the Chinese responded in the best of fashion by equalling the 11-year-old World record of Colin Jackson.
It is the second World record of the competition after Yelena Isinbayeva's 4.91m in the Pole Vault.
Just like Jackson had done at the 1993 Stuttgart World Championships, Xiang was the fastest out of the blocks tantalizingly close to the gun and a clear leader as early as the first barrier was cleared.
An awesome technician the Shangai-born athlete was gaining ground on his pursuers step after step, hurdle after hurdle with only France’s Ladji Doucouré running one lane inside relatively close behind.
Maurice Wignall, Terrence Trammell and Anier Garcia running in lanes 5, 6 and 7 respectively were fighting it hard for third with European silver medallist Stanislavs Olijars in lane 2 also in the mix.
Xiang was never to be caught. The Chinese powered through the last hurdle and stormed towards the finish line celebrating his Olympic gold medal, the first ever medal won by a Chinese male athlete in track and field.
"It is an amazing experience being the Olympic champion," said Xiang. When I was in the blocks all I could think of was the sound of the gun. My race went wonderfully from the start until the end."
"Still this feels like a miracle. I didn't dare to think I would get a medal of any kind here."
Way behind Xiang, Doucouré who has bettered the French national record twice this week, hit the ninth hurdle and lost his balance before smashing into the final barrier, stumbling and fading into eighth.
As the Frenchman was facing disaster, four men came off the last hurdle virtually level and desperately sprinted to the finish in the hope to finish among the top three. Sydney Olympic medallist Trammell took second again in 13.18 just two hundredths of a second clear of defending Olympic champion Garcia in 13.20.
While the American celebrated his third outdoor silver at a major championship, the Cuban seemed to hardly believe he had actually managed to grab a medal after injuries had devastated his 2003 campaign.
World Indoor bronze medallist Wignall came just one hundredth of a second off the bronze in fourth with Olijars awarded the same time of 13.21 in fifth.
Pinpointed as the future star of the discipline, Xiang took China’s first track and field medal of the Games one he should be favourite to defend when the Olympics are held in his home country four years on.
LA
