Liu walks away with first gold for China

Chinese race walker Liu Hong lived up to the huge expectations and won the first gold medal for China at the Beijing world athletics championships on Friday, and she has already set her sights on winning the 2016 Olympics as well.

The pressure of bagging gold for the host in Beijing proved too heavy to handle, as team China has seen its quest of winning in such events as men's race walking, long jump and women's shot put come crashing down amid the thunderous yet intimidating cheers from the home crowd at the Bird's Nest.

As the daunting mission at the IAAF World Championships descended upon the women's 20-kilometer race walking event on Friday morning, Liu carried this hefty burden on her shoulders. But she came through and took home the long-awaited first gold medal after clocking 1 hour, 27 minutes and 45 seconds to finish first with a slight edge over teammate Lu Xiuzhi, who won the silver.