Liu targets Worlds domination
China's superstar hurdler Liu Xiang's top target for 2007 is winning a World Championships title in Osaka, Japan.
"The biggest goal for Liu in 2007 is winning gold at the World Championships," said Sun Haiping, Liu's coach.
"He will also strive to keep his time between 13 and 13.10 seconds."
Last year, the 23-year-old Athens Olympic gold medallist hit the headlines by breaking the men's 110m hurdles world record in Lausanne, Switzerland with a time of 12.88 seconds.
According to Liu's schedule for 2007, he will take part in more than a dozen competitions including the Osaka Grand Prix in May, the Eugene Grand Prix in June and Shanghai's Golden Grand Prix in September, races he has won two years in a row.
"Liu will try to win these competitions for the third successive time," said Sun. "Since few hurdlers manage to win the same three races in a year three times in a row, if Liu is successful it will be a new record."
Breaking the world record was not the only highlight for Liu in 2006, as the Shanghainese sprinter topped the world again at the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart with 12.93 seconds.
His recent disappointment came at the Helsinki World Championships in August 2005, when he was beaten into second place by Ladji Doucoure of France
"I feel a little regret that I missed out on the gold medal at the World Championships in 2005," said Liu, who is the first male Chinese competitor to win a track and field gold medal at the Olympics. "I will do better this year."
In order to clinch the World Championships title, Liu resumed training right after returning from the Doha Asian Games, where he broke the Asian record to win gold.
After winter training, Liu will start his new season at the IAAF World Indoor Meeting next month in Germany. His first outdoor meeting will come in May at Osaka, and he will return there for the World Championships in September.
He then travels to Eugene, Oregon, US for a Grand Prix meeting, before heading back to Europe for the IAAF Golden League in Paris and Rome in July.
According to Liu's initial schedule, he will participate in about 13 competitions this year.
To deal with such tough schedule, his coach has begun trying new training methods.
"Winter training is an important period for him to improve and I have already tried a few new things," Sun said. "I hope the results will be shown at the Osaka World Championships."
As revealed by Feng Shuyong, head coach of the Chinese national athletics team, according to scientific research Liu is in good form and still has potential to improve.
"Competing in many competitions is a classic training method of Liu's coach Sun," said Feng. "Liu still has areas to improve, especially at the start and the first three hurdles."
Although ranked top hurdler of 2006, his rivals are hot on his heels.
They include 33-year-old American Dominique Arnold, who led for most of the world record race in Lausanne and finished a close second in 12.90. 20-year-old Dayron Robles from Cuba equalled the Caribbean and Central American record of 13.00 at the World Athletics Final and finished second behind Liu. American veteran Allen Johnson and French Doucoure are also dangerous challengers.
"Facing all these strong opponents, Liu must keep his focus and continue to improve," said Sun. "Only real power can win the race."
After his success in Athens, Liu set himself three goals - breaking the world record, winning the World Championships and defending his gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The most important task for him right now is the Beijing Games, and the challenge for the coach is how to give Liu more power.
"Establishing how to maintain Liu's good form for the 2008 Games or even the 2012 London Games is my key task," said Sun. "I still have to do more research and develop new training methods."
But the Beijing Games aren't Liu's only ambition, as he has set his sights on remaining a force in his sport into his 30s.
"I've already decided that the 2008 Beijing Olympics won't be the end for me. I also want to compete in the 2012 London Olympics and keep running past the age of 30," Liu said. "I want to prove to myself that I'm not just a flash in the pan."
In his mind is longevity of the sort enjoyed by his former idol Allen Johnson.
"Even after reaching 35, Johnson's achievements have been very good. I can't fall short of that," said Liu. "I want to prove to everyone that as well as surpassing him on the track, I can also keep running past 30.
"I'm only 23 now and there are many competitions for me in the future. I've already proven that I'm on a par with American and European athletes. Now I want to compete in two more Olympic Games. I've matured."
(China Daily 01/16/2007 page22)
