GREAT FALL: China’s Liu Xiang falls and injures himself in the men’s 110m hurdles heats on Tuesday. — AFP photos
LONDON: Hurdler Liu Xiang’s injury nightmare broke hearts in the world’s biggest nation Tuesday as Australia’s London Olympics finally came to life.
Gut-wrenching scenes of Liu, one of China’s biggest stars, limping out of his second straight Olympics without clearing a hurdle left millions of fans in shock and a TV commentator in tears as he broke the news.
Liu, the former world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion, clattered into the first hurdle and crashed heavily to the floor with a likely ruptured achilles tendon.
It was an unbelievably cruel blow for the 29-year-old, who also departed the Beijing Olympics with an achilles problem after managing just a few strides down the track in his opening heat.
After being helped to his feet, Liu hopped down the track and symbolically kissed one of the last hurdles, in a possible gesture of farewell, before being embraced by his fellow athletes.
“When I was a kid I saw him breaking a world record, winning the Olympic Games in Athens, so he’s a great idol for me,” said fellow competitor Balazs Baji of Hungary.
Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt called Liu, “one of the best, hands down”.
“He has shown the world he can do great things. For him to push himself and come back last year… for this to happen, this is really sad for any athlete,” Bolt said.
There was more bad news for China when Russia’s Ilya Zakharov won the men’s 3m springboard diving, foiling the bid of the Chinese “Dream Team” to sweep all eight titles in the sport.
Zakharov pumped his fist in the air as soon as he resurfaced from his last dive, which scored a competition high of 104.50 points to deny China’s Qin Kai and defending champion He Chong.
China have already won five diving gold medals, with two categories yet to be decided. However, they stayed on course to win every table tennis title for the second Games in a row with a thumping 3-0 women’s team victory over Japan.
Disappointment in the pool and the velodrome have meant a difficult Games for Australia, but the sports-mad nation doubled its gold medal-count and soared up the table with two wins on Tuesday.
Anna Meares’ sheer aggression won her the individual sprint from British title-holder Victoria Pendleton, in Australia’s lone success on the cycle track.
And Australia enjoyed its champagne moment when world champion Sally Pearson won the 100m hurdles by two-hundredths of a second from defending champion Dawn Harper in 12.35sec, the fastest time this year.
Pearson, unsure who had won after both runners dipped at the finish, was visibly agitated as she waited for the results to flash up on the scoreboard, at which point she screamed and collapsed to the floor in delight.
“I don’t even know how to describe it because it’s like a dream right now,” said Pearson.
China also won two gymnastics titles on Tuesday, through Feng Zhe in the men’s parallel bars and Deng Linlin in the women’s balance beam.
Flying Dutchman Epke Zonderland caused an upset, however, by claiming the horizontal bar title ahead of Chinese favourite Zou Kai, who could only manage bronze. — AFP