China's biggest hope for the Olympic athletics gold Liu Xiang is building
up his form towards the men's 110 meters hurdles finals on Aug. 21 in the
Beijing Olympic Games.
Sun Haiping, Liu's coach, was quoted by the Chinese Athletics Association
website as saying, "Liu had intensive training these days to compensate for what
he had lost due to shortage of competitions before the Olympics."
The Olympic gold medalist, whose world record was taken over by Cuban Dayron
Robles by one hundredth of a second to 12.87 seconds in June, is now cherishing
every minute to prepare himself for the coming Olympic competition.
He will begin his title defense in the National Statium, better known as
Bird's Nest, on August 18.
The 25-year-old Liu usually took international meets as he geared up for big
events, like what he did before the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the Osaka IAAF
World Championships in 2007.
His last show this year was an Olympic test event in May in the Bird's Nest,
finishing an unimpressive 13.18 seconds.
In contrast, his arch rival Robles clocked 12.88 and 12.91 seconds in the
past half month successively in Paris, France, and Stockholm, Sweden.
After pulling out the track in early June in New York due to worry about leg
cramps, Liu was disqualified for a false start a week later in Eugene, Oregon.
"His injuries have been cured and no longer affect his normal training," said
Sun, who was suspected by some of playing up Liu's so-called injuries before the
Olympics.
"I previously plan a three-stage training program for Liu," Sun said. "But we
just don't have enough time to implement all."
Sun said he was satisfied that Liu had gained 90 percent of his peak form.
Liu was rumored not to attend the Olympic opening ceremony on the night of
August 8, which ruled him out one candidate for the mysterious last Olympic
torch bearer who will light the flame in the main venue.
Sun said Liu, now residing in the Chinese national team's training camp,
would move to the Olympic village around mid August.