Golden Liu boosts Olympic confidence

China's Liu Xiang celebrates after the men's 110m hurdles final at the 11th IAAF World Athletics Championships in Osaka. Inset: China's Zhou Chunxiu (left) and Zhang Wenxiu pose on the podium after receiving the silver and bronze medals in the women's marathon and hammer throw respectively. AFP

The Olympic gold medalist and world record holder lacked a world crown before the Osaka meet and was under intense media pressure heading into it.

But the 24-year-old kept his nerve to maintain a 100 percent record in the past four IAAF Grand Prix events in the Japanese city.

Liu produced an imperfect display, which included a slow start and a late look across at the runner-up, to surge across the line in 12.95 seconds in the final to become China's first male track world champion.

China also grabbed a silver and bronze to finish with its best result since the 1993 World Athletics Championships.

"Judging from the overall performances, it is the second best world championships for Chinese athletes in history," Athletics Administrative Center boss Feng Shuyong said.

"The results are much better than that in Helsinki two years ago and it was also the first gold China has won since the 1999 worlds.

"Such kind of improvements are encouraging and inspiring before the 2008 Beijing Olympics."

At the 2003 world championships, China won just a solitary bronze before picking up two golds at the Athens Olympics the following year.

In 2005, Liu grabbed China's sole silver medal in Helsinki.

"With less than one year before the Olympics, some of our athletes' performances definitely boost the confidence in the lead-up for Beijing Games," Feng added.

Liu, who fell short in Osaka of his world record time of 12.88, now has his sights firmly set on a second Olympic gold medal rather than a world record.

"There's no question it's the Olympics. The main thought in my heart is (winning gold) in Beijing," he said.

In the 110m hurdles, Shi Dongpeng finished a credible fifth in a positive sign that Liu could have welcome company on the medal dais next year.

Medal hopefuls

Chinese athletes have shown they'll be in the mix in other events at next year's Games.

London marathon winner Zhou Chunxiu became the first Chinese to win a gold medal in the long-distance road event at the the world championships and has been tipped as another Olympic hopeful.

Boasting the season's best time, Zhou was overtaken by Kenya's eventual winner Catherine Ndereba with two kilometers to go and had to settle for a silver.

But Feng, also head coach of the Chinese national team, was satisfied with Zhou's performance and impressed by a fourth and an 11th place gained by teammates.

"It is a little bit of a pity for Zhou," he said. "But I am very much satisfied with all three of our marathon runners. Their performances set a strong base for the future competitions."

Zhang Wenxiu, 21, who won bronze in the women's hammer throw, is also expected to provide some surprises next year.

IAAF president Lamine Diack is also convinced that Chinese athletes will exceed themselves in the newly built Chinese National Stadium at the Beijing Olympics.

"I believe the Chinese athletes can do better in the Olympics because they compete at home," Diack said.

"Liu Xiang will 100 per cent have the chance to win again and I think China can make breakthroughs in other events."

In Athens, Liu and 5,000m runner Xin Huina gave the sport a shot in the arm with two unexpected golds.

Feng said nothing was impossible if Chinese athletes produced their best.

"The gap with the world's powerhouses still remains. But in major tournaments, everything will happen as long as we do our best.

"Like in women's hammer throw, Zhang's bronze was partly a result of some world's top athletes' below-par performances."

Other sports to dig out

China sent a record of 56 athletes, 24 men and 31 women to the Osaka worlds, where three men finished in the top eight.

Chinese women competed in 14 events and nine reached the top eight in six events including discus, marathon, 400m hurdles, triple jump, shot put and hammer throw.

In the women's 400m hurdles, Huang Xiaoxiao, fifth in Helsinki, achieved a personal best to take fifth place, while 20-year-old Sun Chao crossed the line in seventh in the 50km walk.

China, who won the women's shot put at two consecutive championships in 1991 and 1993 through Huang Zhihong, had three people in the top eight this time.

Li Lingling finished fourth with a personal best of 19.38m.

Li Meiju was sixth and 17-year-old Gong Lijiao finished seventh.

In disappointing finishes in the walking events, the best Chinese finisher over the men's 20km course was 13th followed by three disqualifications in the 50km.

In the women's 20km, China could only manage a 15th place.

"Our walkers failed to reach expectations," Feng said.

"But there is no reason to lose confidence. Anyway, walking is a traditionally strong sport for China. We had good results in previous competitions.

"We should learn from the failures and come out as stronger competitors in Beijing next year."

(China Daily 09/05/2007 page22)