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Liu Xiang, a 21year old Chinese athlete, got the gold medal of the fascinating men’s 110m hurdles(跨欄)before a crowd of 70 000 at the Olympic Stadium in the 28th Olympics in Athens late Friday local time．He clocked an excellent 12.91 seconds to equal the world record set by Britain’s Collin Jackson in 1993．
It is the first gold Chinese men’s athlete has ever won from the track and field in the Olympics history．China has won over 100 gold medals from the Summer Olympic Games since 1984 but its male athletes only got one medal from Olympics’ most popular sport．
The Shanghai native, with his father a truck driver and mother an out of work housewife, loved sports when he was very little．Liu was selected to the Junior Sports School of Putuo District of Shanghai to practise jumping as a fourth grader in the primary school．But after a bone test showing that he will not be able to become a tall man, Liu was asked to give up sports one year later, although he had won the national champion at that level．
In 1998 when he attracted coach Sun Haiping’s attention as a 15yearold jumper．Sun was a well-known hurdle coach and he believed a star was born at the first sight of Liu．He visited Liu’s parents several times and finally persuaded them to let Liu transfer to the 110m hurdles．
After only three years, Liu launched his career in style in the IAAF Grand Prix in Lausanne in 2001 by breaking the world youth and Asian record with a time of 13.12 seconds．
But the first warning he sent to the world was his bronze-winning feat(戰績)at the world indoor championships in Birmingham, England, last year．
In 2004, Liu won the silver in the world indoor championships in Budapest in March．Two months later, he proved the winner in a race against American great Allen Johnson in the IAAF Grand Prix in Osaka, Japan, where he clocked a new Asian record and world’s season best time of 13.06 seconds．
He went on to win two Johnson?absent races in Lille, France, on June 26 and Zagreb, Croatia, three days later．He put up an exciting show at the Golden Gala meet in Rome on July 3, when he and Johnson clocked an identical time of 13.11 seconds．Race officials had to examine a photo finish to declare Johnson the winner．Liu did a better job of clearing the hurdles than Johnson, but Johnson’s stronger start ended up making the difference．The race boosted(提高)Liu’s optimism for the Olympics, although Johnson bettered his season best time by 0.01 second in Lausanne, Switzerland, on July 6．
The world has put the Olympics a Johnson-Liu duel but surprisingly Johnson crashed out of the Games after falling at the ninth hurdle at round 2．Johnson’s early exit paved the way for Liu’s win．He finally took the gold medal and put a Chinese man’s name on the record book．
(Chinadaily．com．cn/Xinhua)Updated：2004 08-28 02：57
