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China awaits Xiang’s second coronation

K.P. Mohan

But his competitor, Dayron Robles, has an awesome record this season

— Photo: AP

READY TO PUT HIS BEST FOOT FORWARD: Dayron Robles (in picture), who has clocked a 12.88 apart from his world record this season, will give Liu Xiang a run for his money in the 110m hurdles.

Athletics is the showpiece discipline of any Olympic Games. Action in Beijing will begin on August 15, but the Chinese will have an anxious wait until August 21.

That is the day when Liu Xiang will sail over 10 hurdles through a 110-metre stretch at the Beijing National Stadium or the ‘Bird’s Nest’ as it is popularly known. A country of 1.3 billion will have just one thought that evening, of Liu Xiang defending his Olympic title.

Will he beat Dayron Robles? Or will the Cuban dash the hopes of a nation? This high hurdles clash should be one of the high points of the athletics contests in the Beijing Games. Liu Xiang says the home advantage should clinch the gold for him against the Cuban world record holder who clocked 12.87 in Ostrava in June.

The burden of expectations can weigh the Chinese down. But the 25-year-old Shanghai man dismisses such pressures having an effect on him. The worry, if anything, could then be on a hamstring injury he has been nursing through the best part of this summer, preventing a good build-up.

Lack of competition

Lack of competition might well prove a handicap for Liu Xiang. Robles has clocked a 12.88 apart from his world record this season and has competed in nine meets, losing just one. The 21-year-old Cuban looks strong, but he knows beating Liu Xiang at home will take some doing.

A third contender in the hurdles has been overshadowed by the Robles-Liu build-up. American David Oliver, 26, has the second best timing this year, 12.95. Liu Xiang only has a 13.18. By late Sunday, in an ongoing poll on the IAAF website about the hurdles contest, 45.98 percentage votes put Robles on top, Liu following at 44.61, after having trailed much behind a few days earlier, and any other athlete at 9.42 per cent.

Amidst the Robles-Liu hype, we should not be forgetting some of the key contests that should come up in Beijing. Of course every contest would be worth watching, but there are some that should produce high-quality stuff.

The sprint showdown, on August 16, will after all have world record holder Usain Bolt. That much was made clear on Saturday by Bolt’s coach Glen Mills. Asafa Powell has his task cut out. He will have to tackle his Jamaican team-mate, against whom he has lost once this season, and American Tyson Gay, the double world champion in the Osaka championships last year.

All three are in great form, with Bolt heading the list at 9.72, Tyson 9.77 and Powell 9.82. Powell has lost to Gay also only once.

Away from the sprints and sprint hurdles, we can look forward to some fascinating contests in the men’s 400 metres, an all-U.S. duel between Jeremy Wariner and LaShawn Merritt, the middle distances, especially the 1500 metres where Kenyan Bernard Lagat, in U.S. colours will battle it out with a few of his former countrymen, and the distance events where the clash between Kenenisa Bekele and Hail Gebrselassie in the 10,000 metres will be eagerly awaited.

The doping scandal that broke just three days ago, leading to the suspension of seven of its women athletes, has depleted Russia considerably. Yelena Soboleva, a silver medal winner in Osaka in the 1500 metres and two-time world champion Tatyana Tomoshova, who was the silver medallist at the Athens Olympics, lead the season’s charts. They are among the provisionally suspended athletes charged with substitution of urine samples.

The IAAF investigations were over a period of more than one year and with the Olympics just days away, Russia should be in acute embarrassment. The Americans, Torri Edwards, Muna Lee and Lauryn Williams should dominate women’s short sprint with Jamaicans Kerron Stewart and Sheron Simpson capable of a challenge. Jamaican Veronica Campbell will have a fight on her hands against American Alyson Felix in the 200 metres. Sanya Richards, another American, looks unbeatable in the 400.

With the Russians out, the Kenyans, Pamela Jelimo and Janeth Jepkosgei should call the tune in the 800 metres while Bahrain’s Maryam Yusuf Jamal has her path cleared in the 1500 metres.

The Ethiopians, especially Tirunesh Dibaba and Meseret Defar, and the Kenyans are expected to dominate the distance events.

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