NANJING, East China, Oct. 19 (Xinhuanet) -- China's athletic superstar and Olympic champion Liu Xiang breezily earned a berth to the men's 110 meters hurdles final here on Wednesday at the 10th National Games despite an energy reserved tactics.

    Liu, who tied the world record of 12.91 seconds to win China's first Olympic gold in men's athletics last year in Athens, clocked 13.74 seconds to finish top in Group One in the qualifications.

    Shi Dongpeng of Hebei, only other hurdler of China having made name to world athletics, led the Group Two qualifiers with a time of 13.77s, while the 21-year-old's teammate Wang Hui topped the third group in 13.99s.

    As the sole Chinese among the few top hurdlers to world track, Liu Xiang, 22, has been expected to run within 13.36s here in Thursday's final of the men's 110m hurdles to break the record of National Games set by Liu himself four years ago in Guangdong.

    His coach Sun Haiping, however, had ruled out the possibility from Liu of striking against his own personal best of 12.91s as well as a better performance of this season.

    "For Liu, the main goal for the National Games is to ensure a gold, rather than chasing a better result," said Sun before Liu stepped on the National Games track in the Olympic Center Stadium of Nanjing.

    Having kept his performances in almost a fixed level for this year's international showdowns, Liu, whose results of men's 110m hurdles swung from 13.05 to 13.20 seconds so far this year, has a National Games title in sight as none of the Chinese hurdlers have run within 13.20s.

    Liu, a Shanghai native, finishing the runner-up in 13.06s at the Helsinki worlds in August and being crowned in the Asian championships a month ago in Inchon with a dissatisfactory time of 13.30s, has claimed five golds, three silvers and two bronzes in 10 tournaments he has attended so far this year while timing in 13.05s, 13.06s, 13.08s each for twice.

    "Liu can make sure of a breeze win in the National Games, sincerunning into 13.20s seems an easy job for him," said Sun. Enditem