Liu Xiang (foreground) clears a hurdle during the men’s 110m heat at the 10th Chinese National Games in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, yesterday. Liu finished first in 13.74 seconds. The final is tonight. Liu will also participate in the men’s 4x100m relay after the hurdles final. — Xinhua

Olympic champion Liu Xiang breezed through in the heats to secure a spot in the final of the men's 110 meters hurdles at the 10th National Games yesterday.
The Shanghai native, who tied the world record of 12.91 seconds to win China's first Olympic gold in men's track and field last year at the Athens Olympics, clocked 13.74 seconds to finish top in Group One in the qualifications.
Shi Dongpeng of Hebei, the only other Chinese hurdler to have raced in a world event, led the Group Two qualifiers with a time of 13.77, while his 21-year-old teammate Wang Hui topped the third group in 13.99.
Liu Xiang, 22, has been expected to run within 13.36s here in today's final to break his own National Games record set four years ago in Guangdong Province.
His coach Sun Haiping, however, has ruled out the possibility of Liu bettering his own personal best of 12.91s or season's personal best.
"For Liu, the main goal for the National Games is to ensure a gold, rather than chasing a better result," Sun said.
Liu has achieved results between 13.05 to 13.20 seconds this year and a National Games record may well be on the cards today.
Liu finished runner-up at the Helsinki worlds with a timing of 13.06s in August but finished the Asian Championships a month ago in Inchon, South Korea, in 13.30s. He has claimed five golds, three silvers and two bronzes in 10 tournaments he has attended so far this year.
Elsewhere, Shanghai labored to reach the men's soccer final after beating Hubei 4-1 in a penalty shootout yesterday. Hubei missed two in its first three attempts from the spot, while Shanghai converted all four kicks.
Despite Shanghai's dominance in midfield in the first half, Hubei almost grabbed the winner in the 35th minute but midfielder Hao Junmin's shot hit the woodwork.
In the second half, Hubei gradually took the upper hand but could not manage to find the back of the net.
Meanwhile, the women's soccer semifinal between Shanghai and Beijing today is tipped as a final-level clash while Liaoning has more chan-ces to gain the upper hand over Jiangsu in the other semifinal.
With such key national team players like Pu Wei and Pan Lina and other upcoming players, Shanghai is considered the strongest in the women's routine.
Beijing has been hindered by the retirement of some its key players.
Former China captain Sun Wen said Shanghai has the biggest chance to claim the title. But a victory, to a large extent, depended on performance on the pitch, especially in a clash between two teams that don't have big disparities in capability.
Also, Olympic champion Xing Huina of Shandong was stripped of the women's 1,500 meters gold medal at games here for a foul against second placed Liu Qing, the Arbitration Panel of the Athletics Competition announced yesterday.
Xing, who won the 10,000m gold in the Athens Olympics, elbowed Liu in the final meters and outsprinted the Shanxi runner to the second place, the arbitration panel said.