| Liu crashes out; Bolt and Blake through |
LONDON Chinese icon Liu Xiang suffered a second successive Olympic heartbreaker on Tuesday when he crashed out of the 110m hurdles as double 100m champion Usain Bolt strolled through his 200m heat.
World 100m champion, and Bolt’s compatriot, Yohan Blake also made it through to the next round.
Former Olympic champion and world record holder Liu, 29, who had to withdraw just moments before his opening heat in front of his home fans at the Beijing Games in 2008 saw his 2012 bid also last just a split second.
He ploughed into the first hurdle with his left leading leg and crashed heavily to the track.
Liu, who has been troubled by back and foot problems, eventually got up and even hopped down the track to symbolically cross the finish line where he stooped to kiss the 10th and last hurdle.
He was embraced by fellow competitors and won warm applause from the stadium packed with 80,000 stunned spectators.
Liu was helped off the track by Britain’s Andy Turner and Spain’s Jackson Quinonez before being taken to the Olympic Stadium medical centre in a wheelchair.
China’s athletics team leader in London, Feng Shu Yong, later revealed Liu had possibly snapped his Achilles, a recurrence of a problem which had dogged the 2004 Olympic champion for years despite intensive treatment.
“The initial diagnosis from the medical staff is that he has a ruptured Achilles tendon. In the last several years he has had good medical care, but it is still there,” Feng said, referring to Liu’s long-standing injury problems.
“An achilles injury is almost impossible to recover from fully.”
Agence France-Presse
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