Who's hot, who's not in China Sports (Week 23)

Liu back on top

Not all eyes were on Liu Xiang, as it was 3:00 am Beijing time on Saturday, when the Chinese hurdler ran like greased lightning all the way to clock 12.87 at the 2012 Prefontaine Class athletics meet in Eugene, Oregon, USA, which equaled the world record set by Cuban Dayron Robles in 2008.

It was a stunning one-man show by Liu, despite the US's Aries Merritt finishing second with this year's second-best 9.96, and the result not counting as a joint record because of gusts measuring 2.4 meters per second, just above the allowable limit of 2.0.

Li dethroned at French Open

Li Na was thrashed by Yaroslava Shvedova, a 142-ranked qualifier, 2-1, in the fourth round of the French Open, on the one-year anniversary of her sensational victory in the finals. She showed a similar mode of failure that has been played over and over this year – off to a head start, struggle in the middle and melt down in the end. She just lost her focus, with 41 unforced errors, and was finally ground by pressure. After Monday night's loss, she will fall out of the top 10 in the world rankings.

Young paraglider plummets to death

Yang Xiaoqiang, a 20-year-old paraglider with the national paragliding team, hit the earth hard and died after he failed to do a flip in the air at a training base in Hangzhou on Monday.

People in the know revealed Yang insisted on making the high-risk 360-degree turn, disregarding his coach's warning, which led to the tragedy.

Olympics hope dims for men's volleyball

After a narrow 3-2 loss to South Korea, the Chinese men's volleyball team are 2-3 and rank fifth at the Olympic volleyball qualifying tournament, meaning there is only a theoretical possibility for them making it to London

The winner and the best-placed Asian team among the rest in the eight-team round robin will qualify.

Let's suppose China defeats the weaker Venezuela in their next game, they cannot afford another loss to Australia. And if the Iranians win one more or the Japanese two more, they will also have to bow out.