Xiang Liu of China on his way to winng the 110m hurdles gold (© Getty Images)
26 April 20052004 Olympic champion Liu Xiang did what he wanted in the first national grand prix meeting in Zhongshan, China on Sunday.
Liu won the final in 13.23 seconds beating Dominique Arnold’s (USA) World leading time of 13.33, which he ran in the Kansas Relays on Saturday.
After arriving in Zhongshan, located in the southern Guangdong province, Liu said he wanted a time between 13.20 and 13.30 which would have been the fastest time in the world this season. He boldly declared this because the weather in Zhongshan was perfect, sunshine and 25-29 C temperature during the weekend.
In the first race of the season in Yichun a week earlier, Liu had to cope with cool weather and rain finishing with a result of 13.59.
Liu’s coach Sun Haiping was happy with the winning mark and said that the Olympic champion’s test times are much better than last year's. Sun also coached Chen Yanhao, who was the leading Chinese hurdler for several years before Liu came to beat him in the 2001 National Games. Chen had won the 1993 and 1997 editions of this prestigious meeting in China.
The extra ingredient for Liu’s season will be the 4x100m relay with the Shanghai team. Liu, who also competed in the relay in the 2001 National Games, wants to be part of a winning team.
Shanghai sprints coach Shen Shida, a former 10.30 100m sprinter himself, is very pleased to have Liu in the team. Shen said that he thinks Liu could be fighting for a win in the 100m flat as well.
Relay disappointment
However in Zhongshan, Liu was anchoring the relay team, but the last change-over did not go as planned and Shanghai finished in sixth place clocking 40.19 seconds well behind the winning Guangxi team (39.87).
The brightest star of the team was missing as Yang Yaozu, who was part of the Chinese Olympic team in Athens (200m), is training in the USA and won the 200m race in the Michael Johnson Invitational in Waco, Texas on Saturday.
Other leading performances
Some women’s events provided promising results too, Huang Xiaoxiao, a semi-finalist in the Athens 400m Hurdles, opened her season with 55.51, easily the best opening mark to a season by the 22-year-old. Last season she went on to record a personal best in the Athens Olympics heats (54.83) with the first final of the season being a modest 58.69 in May.
Top long jumper Guan Yingnan, who was having injury troubles in the 2004 outdoor and 2005 indoor seasons, seems to be fine now. 28-year-old Guan, who took the fourth place in the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Budapest, only jumped 6.48m indoors this season, but was able to reach 6.78m in the first outdoor meeting. Guan’s mark is only 4cm below Tianna Madison’s (USA) World leading 6.82m and gives her the second place in the World lists this season. Guan has a best of 6.95m from 2000.
Gu Yuan, who was 4th in the 2003 World Championships, but a disappointing 10th in the 2004 Olympics, is getting closer to her best marks. She conquered the 70m-line for the first time this season winning with 70.50m in Zhongshan. The win was easy because the other top hammer thrower in China, World junior record holder, 19-year-old Zhang Wenxiu was absent from this first key meeting in China during 2005.
Mirko Jalava for the IAAF
