Cuba’s Dayron Robles has toppled Liu Xiang’s 110m hurdles world record. The 21-year-old clocked 12.87 seconds, beating Liu’s time by just 0.01 seconds and smashing his own personal best. Liu was not racing.
Check out Robles’ reaction here:
Olympic favourite in more ways than one, Liu Xiang is not only expected to successfully defend his Olympic title, but is one of the most popular athletes in the host country. If the pressure from 1.3 billion people’s expectations was not great enough, Liu now has to contend with a new world record holder. Many Chinese hearts will be beating a little faster when they hear the news this Friday morning…
Much has been said about the pressure Liu will face this year; seeing him win gold in the Bird’s Nest was number one in a poll of the Chinese public’s Olympic dreams. Comparisons have been drawn between Liu and more traditional Chinese heroes.
Despite having started his season well, Liu missed two races this week through disqualification and a slight injury. Meanwhile Robles could not have timed this form better, and will join Usain Bolt as a new favourite come August.
The main events in Beijing certainly look to be hotting up! Let’s hope the athletics can outshine the drugs rumours and protests after all!
Hey there,
Some interesting news just out today (6/18). Robles has nothing but positive things to say about Xiang and his other 110 competitors. I am really excited to see how things unfold with this event in August. I also respect the fact that Robles, although a World Record holder, seems to have a solid head on his shoulders…no big ego. He also hinted that he believes the World Record will fall again this summer, although he didn’t give any other info. Seems like he thinks he can run even faster.
Love the site..Keep up the good work!!
All this is truly exciting.
Christian Loriau
[...] they did. This summer in Beijing most anticipation will be on the clashes between Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles or the three-way of Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell and Tyson Gay. If any of these confrontations prove to [...]
[...] in hoops are top draws on my list for Beijing. The (potential) showdown between Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles (Cuba) will probably be classic as well. Unfortunately, I don’t have access to NBC over here, but [...]
I am Chinese and a former track runner but I am pretty sure he was on drugs in 2003-2004. Many of the former female Chinese runners ran WR times in one race all of a sudden and then were never heard of again. That is a sure sign of doping, especially for distance running. There is no possible way for him to just show up and get the WR like that. no way. The reason he did not run this year was to mask his drugging, dont you see?