Liu Xiang (athlete)

Liu Xiang at the world finals in Stuttgart 2006

Liu Xiang ( Chinese  刘翔 , Pinyin Liú Xiáng ; born July 13, 1983 in Shanghai ) is a former Chinese athlete and Olympic champion in the 110-meter hurdles .

biography

Liu Xiang began his sporting career as a high jumper , but at the international level he could not keep up due to insufficient jumping power and switched to hurdles . He first drew attention to himself in 2002, when he set a junior world record (also Asian record) with 13.12 seconds.

At the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham in 2003 , Liu was third in the 60 meter hurdles (time: 7.52 s). At the World Championships in Paris / Saint-Denis in the same year he also reached third place over 110 meter hurdles (time: 13.23 s). At the World Indoor Championships in Budapest in 2004 , he was second behind Allen Johnson in the 60 meter hurdles . The time of 7.43 s he achieved there was also the Asian record.

He celebrated his greatest sporting success at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. There he won the final race over 110 meter hurdles in 12.91 s. and equalized the world record held by Colin Jackson .

The 2005 World Championships in Helsinki brought him the silver medal behind the French Ladji Doucouré . On July 11, 2006, he finally became the sole world record holder for the 110 meter hurdles when he ran 12.88 seconds at the athletics meeting in Lausanne, improving the previous record by three hundredths of a second. The runner-up Dominique Arnold also stayed below the old world record with his time of 12.90 s and thus set a new US record. In Osaka at the 2007 World Championships , he won his first world title with 12.95 s.

At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Liu Xiang had to give up after a false start that he had not caused himself in the run-up due to an Achilles tendonitis that had already disabled him. The injury forced him to take a year-long hiatus. After he was unable to take part in the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, he achieved seventh place at the 2010 World Indoor Championships . At the 2011 World Championships in Daegu , he was runner- up behind the American Jason Richardson after the Cuban Dayron Robles was disqualified for disability.

At the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene (Oregon) on June 2, 2012, he set Dayron Robles' world record with a time of 12.87 s. The too strong tail wind (2.4 m / s) prevented an official recognition of his performance. At the Olympic Games in London in 2012 , Liu Xiang was eliminated in the preliminary stages after falling after the first hurdle. On April 7, 2015, Liu Xiang announced his resignation.

With a height of 1.89 m, he has a competition weight of 82 kg.

Performance data

Liu Xiang's 110 meter hurdle times under 13 seconds:

Most of the 110 meter hurdles under 13 seconds

rank	Track and field athlete	number
1.	Allen Johnson	11
2.	David Oliver	9
3.	Dayron Robles	8th
	Aries Merritt	8th
5.	Liu Xiang	6th
6th	Colin Jackson	5
7th	Omar McLeod	4th
As of May 7, 2018

Time (s)	Wind (m / s)	date	place
12.88	1.1	July 11, 2006	Lausanne ( Athletissima )
12.91	0.3	Aug 27, 2004	Athens ( XXVIII Olympic Games )
12.92	1.5	0June 2, 2007	New York City
12.93	−0.6	0Sep 9 2006	Stuttgart ( 4th IAAF World Finals )
12.95	1.7	Aug 31, 2007	Osaka ( World Championships 2007 )
12.97	0.4	May 19, 2012	Shanghai (Diamond League Meeting)

Web links

Commons : Liu Xiang  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official Website of Liu Xiang (Engl.)
• Liu Xiang in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Portrait at IAAF - Focus on Athletes ( Memento from August 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ), September 15, 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ FTD March 2, 2010 ( Memento from September 4, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
2. ↑ stern.de August 29, 2011
3. ↑ HDsports.at June 2, 2012
4. ↑ HDsports.at August 7, 2012

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Liu is the family name here, Xiang is the first name.