By Sportswriter Xue Ying
OSAKA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Liu Xiang became the first
Chinese to take a gold medal at the world athletics championships after winning
the 110m hurdles here on Friday.
Liu, also the Olympic champion who holds the world
record of 12.88 seconds, clocked 12.95 seconds for the historical win. Americans
Terrence Trammell and David Payne took the silver and bronze with 12.99 and
13.02 seconds, respectively.
"I am very, very excited," Liu said after running a
victory lap. "I am the world champion now."
The 24-year-old Liu failed to reach the final in
Edmonton 2001,took the bronze in Paris 2003 and won the silver in Helsinki 2005.
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China's Liu Xiang celebrates after
winning gold during the men's 110m hurdles final at the 11th IAAF World
Athletics Championship in Osaka, Japan, August 31, 2007. (Xinhua/Liao
Yujie)
Photo
Gallery>>> |
Liu's fellow Chinese Shi Dongpeng, who was seventh in
2003, took the fifth place with a personal best time of 13.19.
Cuba's Dayron Robles was fourth in 13.15.
Also in the evening, US athletes swept men's 400
meters with Jeremy Wariner finished first at 43.46 seconds, followed by LaShawn
Merritt and Angelo Taylor, 43.96 and 44.32, respectively.
Another American athlete, Allyson Felix, defended the
women's 200m world champion in 21.81 seconds. She was followed by the newly
crowned 100m champion Veronica Campbell of Jamaica, 22.34, and Sri Lanka's
Susanthika Jayasinghe, 22.63.
Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva failed in her attempt to
win the triple jump title for the third time. The 2001 and 2003 champion ranked
second with 15.07m while Cuba's Yargelis Savigne won the gold with 15.28m.
"It's life, I wanted the second gold," said Lebedeva,
who just won the long jump on Tuesday.
To Savigne, this medal is a big surprise. "It is very
important for me and for Cuba," she said.
Barbora Spotakova from the Czech Republic won women's
javelin throw with 67.07 meters, followed by Germany's Christina Obergfoll and
Steffi Nerius, 66.46m and 64.42m, respectively.
This was the first time Spotakova, 26, won a major
global competition.
She said during the championships she thought about
Czech javelin thrower Jan Zelezny, who won the gold at the 1992, 1996 and 2000
Olympic Games and Silver in the 1988 Olympics as well as three world
championship titles in 1993, 1995 and 2001.
"He gave me many advices in past years," she said.
Two Russians, Olga Kaniskina and Tatyana Shemyakina,
led the women's 20 kilometers race walk in the morning. Kaniskina finished with
one hour 30 minutes and nine seconds, followed by Shemyakia, 1:30:42, and
Spain's Maria Vasco, 1:30:47.
List of China's world
athletics champions
OSAKA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Following is the list of
China's athletics champions in the world championships history (tabulated under
year, place, name and event):
1991 Tokyo, Huang Zhihong, women's shot put
1991 Tokyo, Xu Demei, women's javelin throw
1993 Stuttgart, Liu Dong, women's 1,500m
1993 Stuttgart, Qu Yunxia, women's 3,000m
1993 Stuttgart, Wang Junxia, women's 10,000
1993 Stuttgart, Huang Zhihong, women's shot put
1999 Seville, Liu Hongyu, women's 20km walk
2007 Osaka, Liu Xiang, men's 110m hurdles
