Liu Xiang en route to his 12.93 victory in Stuttgart (© Getty Images)
Reigning Olympic 110 metres Hurdles champion Liu Xiang will head China's 41-strong track and field team at December's Asian Games, the Chinese Athletics Association (CAA) announced on Wednesday (25).
At the last edition of the Asian Games in Busan, Korea in 2002, Liu Xiang scored a runaway victory in the 110m Hurdles, clocking a Games record of 13.27, bettering Li Tong’s 1994 mark of 13.30.
This summer Liu Xiang famously flew to a 12.88 clocking in Lausanne, Switzerland on 11 July to become the outright holder of the World record for the sprint hurdles. He was under 13 seconds again when taking the World Athletics Final title in Stuttgart last month with a 12.93 win.
Though just over a week later Liu Xiang lost to USA's former four-time World champion Allen Johnson at the World Cup in Athens, the 23-year-old star from Shanghai beat the American when they next met in Liu Xiang's home town (23 Sep; 13.07 to 13.09), and again a few days later in Daegu, Korea (28 Sep; 13.14 to 13.16).
Teenager Huang Haiqiang, who won gold in the High Jump at the World Junior Championships in Beijing in August, is also included in the squad for the Asian Games, which open in Doha, Qatar on 1 December 2006 (Athletics schedule begins on 7 Dec).
Huang Haiqaing, who also won the World Youth title in Marrakesh in 2005, in taking the Junior crown this summer twice improved his personal best, firstly to 2.29m and then to 2.32m, just one centimetre behind the Asian Junior record held by Zhu since 1982.
2004 Olympic women's 10,000m champion Xing Huina has been left out of the Asian Games team because of a knee injury.
China won 150 gold medals at the last Asian Games in the Korean city of Busan in 2002 and will be looking to increase that tally as preparations continue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Chris Turner and Reuters for the IAAF
