NANJING, China, Oct 20: Olympic gold medallist Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles on Thursday at the China National Games in a time of 13.10 seconds, his fastest time since winning the Athen’s gold in a world record time.

Liu exploded out of the blocks for a lead he never relinquished in the race run under a light rain before a half-packed stadium — the biggest crowd so far for the track and field events.

Liu, whose 12.91 seconds in the Athens final matched Colin Jackson’s world record, is China’s first-ever men’s athlete to win a sprint race at the Olympic level. He has vowed to repeat the feat at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Shi Dongpeng finished second in 13.44, followed by Cheng Ming in 13.70.

In the women’s events Thursday, Athen’s Olympic champion Xing Huina qualified for the finals of the women’s 5,000m a day after being stripped of her gold medal win in the 1,500m.

Xing ran a rather slow time in the 5,000m preliminary, clocking 15 minutes and 59.37 seconds to finish sixth in her heat. World championship bronze medalist Sun Yingjie won the heat in 15:49.03.

A surprise winner in the Athen’s Olympics 10,000m, she continued to maintain she should not have been disqualified for bumping Liu Qing in Wednesday night’s 1,500m final.

However, games officials said her Shandong provincial team had not filed a formal appeal on the disqualification.

Liu, China’s top 1,500m runner, was awarded the gold medal in the controversy.

Xing, who won the 10,000m Monday night and ran the 1,500m preliminary and finals on Tuesday and Wednesday, is participating in three events at the ongoing games and finding little time for rest.

Participation in multiple events has been a tradition at the National Games track and field competition since the legendary Wang Junxia set world records in the womens’ 10,000m and 3,000m events in 1993.

In those games Wang also ran the marathon and broke the existing world record in the 1,500m, only to see her teammate Qu Yunxia set a new world record in the event.

The records stand today and China has not been able to reproduce runners of Wang and Qu’s stature.

That is not for the lack of trying. Sun Yingjie, winner of the 5,000m heat on Wednesday, was crowned the games marathon champion on Sunday and then placed second to Xing in the 10,000m on Monday.

Earlier, Xing vowed to appeal her 1,500m disqualification, maintaining that the eventual winner Liu bumped her first as the two sprinted for the finish line.

Xing clocked four minutes 3.97 seconds in the race with Liu finishing a whisker behind.

Liu and her Shanxi delegation immediately protested the result. Shanxi officials collapsed to their knees crying foul and demanding the referees’ commission review the race video and disqualify Xing.—AFP