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Xiang Liu - An All Time Great
By Conway Hill
| Sunday, June 3 2007 3:43:09 PM |
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The 110 hurdles is an event that has been dominated by American hurdlers throughout the history of the event. The all time list is dominated by names like Roger Kingdom, Allen Johnson, and Renaldo Nehemiah.
World Record holders have included Roger Kingdom, Renaldo Nehemiah, Rod Milburn, and Willie Davenport. And the gold medal lists feature Davenport, Milburn, Foster, and Kingdom. But for all this history, the greatest ever may be walking among us in the form of Xiang Liu of China.
Xiang was in New York City yesterday to contest the hurdle event against an extremely tough field of competitors. Such is his aura in the event that American Record holder Dominique Arnold twice false started in attempt to gain an edge over Xiang.
When the event finally went off Terrence Trammell burst from the blocks blazing on his way to a personal best of 12.95 - yet he STILL lost to Xiang who ran a world leading time of 12.92! By the way, only Xiang himself, and former WR holder Colin Jackson (12.91) have ever run faster than Xiang's winning time yesterday. |
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Xiang Liu in NYC (photo: Shanghai Daily)
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Now when talk of "speed" events comes up the conversation has been dominated over the past two or three years by discussions of Justin Gatlin and Asafa Powell. And most recently by talk of the 200 meter sprinters, as we now have four young men under 19.70 and taking aim at trying to get closer to the WR of 19.32.
But for all the exploits of these individuals, Xiang Liu has quietly crafted out a resume that puts him among the greatest of all time - and he is not yet 25 years old! Consider that his 12.92 is equal to the 5th best time ever. He became the first individual to run under 12.90 last year when he set the current WR of 12.88. He also ran the equal 9th fastest time ever last year (equal 7th at the time) when he ran 12.93 INTO a negative wind (-0.6) - impressive to say the least.
Following is a snapshot of Liu's career:
2000 - Ran 13.75 as a 17 year old
2001 - At 18 began to show some world class times. 13.32/13.36/13.42
2002 - At 19 showed that he was indeed going to be someone who would have to be reckoned with internationally. 13.12/13.27/13.29/13.31/13.36
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