Chinese star hurdler Liu Xiang was set to test a new start at Sunday’s Diamond League before a hometown crowd in Shanghai, hoping it could help him recapture Olympic glory at London 2012.
Meanwhile, sprint star Asafa Powell, also aiming to put injuries behind him, won the men’s 100m in 9.95sec, showing he had recovered from a pulled hamstring that led to a last-place 200m finish a week earlier. The spotlight was on Liu, China’s first athlete to win an Olympic track gold medal, in 2004, who has had his eye on redemption in London ever since an Achilles injury forced him out of his first heat at the 2008 Beijing Games. “I’m recovering well. In terms of injury, it’s better now than it was in 2010,” Liu told a pre-meet news conference ahead of his 2011 outdoor debut.
The 27-year-old former world champion came in seventh at last year’s indoor championships in Doha. And while he won a third straight Asian Games title in November, he was far off his personal best of 12.88. Liu, dubbed “flying man” in China, said he has cut the number of steps before launching into the first hurdle from eight to seven. “This is only a tryout of the new technique. If I encounter difficulties or failure, I will probably change back to the eight steps,” he told reporters. Jamaica’s Powell, formerly the world’s fastest man, said he also wanted to test his form as he starts an ambitious outdoor 100 metres season.
He will square off with both his rivals — the world’s fastest man and fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt and American Tyson Gay — before the World Championships in South Korea in late August.
Although he dominated Sunday’s race, it was far from personal best is 9.72 — which he said he had hoped to beat in Shanghai. Bolt holds the world record with a time of 9.58. Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown, the fastest woman in the world last year, won the women’s 100m (10.92), beating Carmelita Jeter, who clocked the year’s fastest time — 10.86 — in Kingston. In women’s 400m hurdles, world number one, Jamaica’s Kaliese Spencer won (52.20), seeing off challengers American Lashinda Demus and Olympic champ Melaine Walker, who returned after an achilles injury sidelined her last year. Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba ran the year’s fastest 1500m (3:21.42), beating fellow Kenyan and Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop, who came second despite running a season’s best of 3:31.76. Croatian high jump star Blanka Vlasic, the 2010 IAAF female athlete of year, won with the best jump of the season at 1.94m.
