Liu Xiang has drawn all spotlights on him as the Olympic champion stepped on track for the men's 110 meters hurdles here on Thursday, while Shanxi's Zhang Qi set new national record in the men's shot put in the field of the 10th National Games.

Liu snatched the men's 110 meters hurdles gold medal with a new meet-record time of 13.10 seconds, better the former mark of 13.36set by himself four years ago at the 9th edition of the Games in Guangdong.

Earlier in the evening, Zhang Qi set a new national record to win the men's shot put event with a throw of 20.15 meters, bettering the mark by 0.37 meters in the qualifying round before demonstrating his talents in the field again in the final.

Tian Yingchun of Heilongjiang took the silver in 19.25 meters, and the bronze went to Jia Peng of Liaoning in 18.99 meters.

The 21-year-old Zhang had tied the national record of 19.78m last June at the Asian athletics grand prix in Singapore. The previous mark was set 15 years ago by Ma Yongfeng in a regional championships in Beijing.

Also in the field on Thursday, Li Shaojie collected the sixth athletics gold medal for Shandong in the men's discus throw, beating veteran Wu Tao of Liaoning to the second place.

On the women's part, Jiangsu's 18-year-old walker Bai Yanmin took a clear win over famous names to win the women's 20km walk race in one hour, 27 minutes and 37 seconds, while Sydney Olympic Games champion Wang Liping finished a disappointing 11th place in 1:32:39, over five minutes behind the leader.

Zhejiang's Zhao Yingying, who secured her winning status in hersecond attempt, cleared 4.40 meters to win the women's pole vault event, beating Yang Yingof Guangdong to the second place after Yang cleared the same height but only succeeded in the fourth vault.

In Thursday's sprint, Liu Xiang beat Shi Dongpeng of Hebei to the second place after Shi, the only other hurdler of China having made name to world athletics, clocked a distant 13.44 behind the Shanghai native, while Chen Ming of Tianjin took the bronze medal with a much further time of 13.70.

It's a victory in expectation for Liu, who tied the world record of 12.91 seconds to win China's first Olympic gold in men's athletics last year in Athens, since none of the Chinese hurdlers besides Liu have run within 13.20.

But no one had thought that the 22-year-old managed Thursday' to run in 13.10 for the National Games title. Neither did Liu himself.

"To win is the most important. I knew that I could make it, butI didn't expect such a time," said Liu at a post-match news conference.

"The track has been slippery with the drizzle, and that did make it a little bit hard for me to run out a good result."

Liu's coach Sun Haiping echoed his trainee that "if only Liu avoids fault start and errors, he can definitely win in any domestic tournament."

As the sole Chinese among the few top hurdlers to world track, Liu has kept his performances in almost a fixed level for this season's international showdowns, swinging from 13.05 to 13.20 seconds so far this year.

The super star to China's athletics, who had drawn over 40,000 spectators to the athletics tournament on Thursday, finished runner-up in 13.06 at the Helsinki worlds in August and was crowned in the Asian championships a month ago in Inchon with a dissatisfactory time of 13.30.

He has claimed five golds, three silvers and two bronzes in 10 tournaments he has attended so far this year while timing in 13.05,13.06, 13.08 each for twice.