Liu wins 110m hurdles at Prefontaine meet
EUGENE, Oregon: Olympic champion and world record holder Liu Xiang of China won the 110m hurdles in 13.23 seconds after American record holder Dominique Arnold hit the sixth hurdle and ended seventh.
Liu, whose parents watched him race, said he was not affected by Arnold and was happy with the competition.
Liu finished in a time of 13.23 seconds, beating American Anwar Moore Moore to second in 13.24. The time was well off his world record of 12.88.
"I am pleased with my time," said Liu, who ran a world-leading 12.92 in New York last weekend. "I didn't think I won it. The weather is cold and the track is hot for me."
Dominque Arnold also challenged the 23-year-old Liu as the American led the race until he hit the sixth hurdle. Liu cleared the last hurdle then looked over at Moore before hitting the tape.
"I felt them coming up on me," said Liu, who won China's first men's Olympic athletics gold in Athens in the 110m hurdles.
China's Liu Xiang (left) leads Dominique Arnold of the US during the men's 110m hurdles at the Prefontaine Classic grand prix in Eugene, Oregon on Sunday. Reuters |
The 23-year-old smashed the world record last July in 12.88 seconds in Lausanne and set up three of the 10 best times ever in the event.
Meanwhile, Xavier Carter powered past fellow American Wallace Spearmon to win a star-studded 200 meters on Sunday.
Carter, who beat a field that included 100m world record holder Asafa Powell and Olympic 400m champion Jeremy Wariner, clocked 20.23 seconds into a solid headwind on a misty afternoon for the narrow win.
Spearmon finished second in 20.25 with Jamaican Powell third in 20.55. American Wariner was a disappointing sixth in 20.78
Carter clocked the second fastest 200m of all-time last year (19.63 seconds) but finished fourth in a Los Angeles race last month.
"Just because I wasn't winning (earlier this year), doesn't mean I had lost it," he said.
"But all this running right here really doesn't count until you win the big one," Carter said of August's world championships.
Powell was glad to be going back to the 100m, beginning with Friday's Golden League meeting in Oslo.
"It was a bit too cold so I didn't try to push it," Powell said.
Kenyan Daniel K. Komen ran the fastest mile on American soil, clocking 3:48.28, and Craig Mottram won the infrequently contested two-mile race in an Australian record 8:03.50.
The time was the sixth fastest ever ran in the event and a national record by nine seconds, Mottram said.
Three other 2007 world-leading performances were set in the meeting at the site of the 2008 US Olympic trials.
Mozambique's Maria Mutola won the meet's women's 800m for the 15th consecutive time, running 1:58.33, Ethiopian Gelete Burka clocked 4:00.48 in the women's 1,500m and Jamaican Melaine Walker won the women's 400m hurdles in 54.14 seconds.
Olympic bronze medallist Paul Koech dominated the 3,000m steeplechase, winning in 8:08.08, and upcoming American Nick Symmonds outran Russian Olympic gold medallist Yuriy Borzakovskiy to win the men's 800m in 1:44.54.
Agencies
(China Daily 06/12/2007 page24)
