Liu Xiang quits 110m hurdles as China ranks gold tally no. 1
(Xinhua Photo)
11:50am Beijing Time, Monday, August 18, 2008 was an exciting moment for 90,000 audiences seated in the full packed Bird's Nest and many more stood in front of television screens. Liu Xiang, the gold medalist and world record breaker in men's 110m hurdles competition of Athens Olympics in 2004, was the defending champion of this occasion in Beijing. Liu was being placed in Group Sixth. He came in to the track and began to warm up, the enthusiastic audiences cheered up joyfully. But his face expressed pain after he crossed a few hurdles in trial run. He kneed down because he felt the severe pain on the tendon to the right foot. The injury had been existed for about seven years, long before his Athens record-breaking result 12.91 seconds. Liu Xiang got up and walked with limpness. Some stretching movements have been done but these actions had intensified his pain. The feeling of something bad would be happened was in the heart of the audiences who seated closer to Liu. He got up with slight difficulty and changed. The crowd cheered up again.
China's Liu Xiang (R) reacts on the starting line during
the first round competition of men's 110m hurdles at the National Stadium,
also known as the Bird's Nest (Xinhua/Chen Kai)
The first gun fire failed to start the first round of the competition because one of the participants had jumped off too fast. This added more misery to Liu because he had to stop very quickly and to start again later.
Liu Xiang returned and torn down his participant number, he quitted the 110m hurdles competition. This is unbelievable news for the audiences in China and around the world. Many people on the venue and in front of TV screens cried sadly.
"I feel very sad. I really don't want to quit." Said Liu. And later he reportedly vowed that he will come back.
Sun Haiping, coach of Chinese athlete Liu Xiang,
reacts during a press conference after
the men's 110m hurdles at the National Stadium (Xinhua/Liu Dawei)
The head coach of Liu Xiang, Sun Haiping, sorrowfully cried during a press conference. "We have tried our best, and we are doing so everyday," said he, "but the result is such a sad one. We feel very sorrow about it." Liu didn't attend this conference. Sun continued with tears, "The quitting of Liu is because an old injury which has been affected his right foot for six or seven years, but not the thigh injury in recent months. His right foot's injury has been intensified since August 16."
The majority of the Chinese people are very sorry to see Liu Xiang's quit, but they are so sympathetic to his decision. Some physicians say that Liu's move is right because if he go on, it will have a negative impact on his future come back.
China's Yin Jian waves the national flag as she has won
the first ever women's RS-X sailing gold medal of the country (qq.com)
At 1:45pm Beijing Time, August 20, China's Yin Jian has won the first ever women's RS-X sailing gold medal of the country. This is the 44th gold medal won by Chinese delegation in Beijing Olympics. The country is ranked no.1 in the gold medal tally, ahead of the United States, which has 26 gold medals and the United Kingdom, which has 16 gold medals.
