All eyes on Liu at Asian athletics
Luke Phillips
All eyes at the athletics programme of the 16th Asian Games will be
on home-grown superstar Liu Xiang, who is seeking to bounce back from
his Olympic Games disaster with a third successive regional title.
The Shanghai-born 110m hurdler, who won gold at the 2004 Athens
Olympics but bombed out in Beijing after failing to recover from an
achilles injury, said: “I want to win at my third Asian Games and add
one gold medal for China.
“I’m in good form recently and I want to get the right feeling back
gradually.”
Surgery
The 27-year-old’s path to recovery has been a long one that has seen
surgery in the United States and almost a year of rehabilitation.
He made his comeback in September 2009, but his form was still off
and he could only manage seventh at the World Indoor Championships in
March, his first international race after the injury.
Liu even lost to compatriot Shi Dongpeng at the Shanghai Diamond
League competition, a sure reminder that he will not have it easy in
Guangzhou. “My biggest opponent in each race is myself, and I think my
confidence should be based on real power,” the former world champion and
world record-holder said, quoted by China Daily.
Competition
“In the last two or three years, I took in less competition than in
2005 and 2006 and the training intensity is far from before as well. Now
I’m trying to make it up and the key point is the ability in
competition.
“I’m always optimistic and I think I’m still in good form. Since I’m
making improvement, my confidence will pile up as well.
“The Asian Games is a preparation for all the competitions next year
and the year after,” Liu added, in a broad hint that he had the 2012
London Olympic Games in his cross-hairs.
Top stars
Other top stars on the track are Bahrain’s Yusuf Saad Kamal and
Maryam Jamal.
Kamal, born in Kenya as Gregory Koncellah, the son of Billy — a world
800m champion in 1987 and 1991, is the reigning 1500m world champion and
800m bronze medallist.
Defending Ethiopian-born double champion Jamal came to prominence in
2007 when she became the first Bahraini woman to win a world
championship title with the 1500m gold in the Osaka worlds.
She then went on to defend her title in Berlin in 2009 and goes in
the 800m and 1500m in Guangzhou.
But she has pinpointed the latter event as the one she wants to
master in China.
Improvement
“I want to get gold in the 1500m and retain the title I won in Doha
but the competition in Guangzhou will be strong after the improvement of
athletes from Japan, India and China,” she said.
“Also don’t forget that Bahrain’s national champion Mimi Balyiti will
also be there.”
Those missing include Kamel and Jamal’s former team-mates Ruqaya al-Ghassara,
the now-retired reigning 200m Asian champion who later failed a doping
test, and Morocco-born Rashid Ramzi, who was stripped of his Beijing
Games 1500m gold medal after testing positive for drugs.
The 2005 double world 800-1500m champion was one of five Beijing
competitors who were later caught out when samples were re-tested in
February 2009 and found to contain a new form of the banned blood
booster EPO-CERA.
Great results
Sheikh Ahmed bin Hamad al-Khalifa, secretary-general of the Bahrain
Olympic Committee, told AFP: “We hope we get some great results.
“The Bahrain team has always had a strong participation in the Asian
Games and we went from seven medals in Busan in 2002 to 20 (seven gold,
nine silver and four bronze) in Doha four years ago.
“We hope we’ll get a good number of medals, especially in athletics,
taekwondo and handball.”
China will be hopeful of bumping up their medal haul by snagging
podium spots in the marathon and walking events.
PARIS, AFP |
