Liu Xiang becomes first Chinese man to win world athletics title





By Sportswriter Xue Ying



OSAKA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Liu Xiang became the first Chinese to take a gold medal at the world athleticschampionships after winning the 110m hurdles here on Friday.



Liu, also the Olympic champion who holds the world record of 12.88 seconds, clocked 12.95 seconds for the historical win. Americans Terrence Trammell and David Payne took the silver and bronze with 12.99 and 13.02 seconds, respectively.



"I am very, very excited," Liu said after running a victory lap. "I am the world champion now."



The 24-year-old Liu failed to reach the final in Edmonton 2001,took the bronze in Paris 2003 and won the silver in Helsinki 2005.



Liu's fellow Chinese Shi Dongpeng, who was seventh in 2003, took the fifth place with a personal best time of 13.19.



Cuba's Dayron Robles was fourth in 13.15.



Also in the evening, US athletes swept men's 400 meters with Jeremy Wariner finished first at 43.46 seconds, followed by LaShawn Merritt and Angelo Taylor, 43.96 and 44.32, respectively.



Another American athlete, Allyson Felix, defended the women's 200m world champion in 21.81 seconds. She was followed by the newly crowned 100m champion Veronica Campbell of Jamaica, 22.34, and Sri Lanka's Susanthika Jayasinghe, 22.63.



Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva failed in her attempt to win the triple jump title for the third time. The 2001 and 2003 champion ranked second with 15.07m while Cuba's Yargelis Savigne won the gold with 15.28m.



"It's life, I wanted the second gold," said Lebedeva, who just won the long jump on Tuesday.



To Savigne, this medal is a big surprise. "It is very important for me and for Cuba," she said.



Barbora Spotakova from the Czech Republic won women's javelin throw with 67.07 meters, followed by Germany's Christina Obergfoll and Steffi Nerius, 66.46m and 64.42m, respectively.



This was the first time Spotakova, 26, won a major global competition.



She said during the championships she thought about Czech javelin thrower Jan Zelezny, who won the gold at the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympic Games and Silver in the 1988 Olympics as well as three world championship titles in 1993, 1995 and 2001.



"He gave me many advices in past years," she said.



Two Russians, Olga Kaniskina and Tatyana Shemyakina, led the women's 20 kilometers race walk in the morning. Kaniskina finished with one hour 30 minutes and nine seconds, followed by Shemyakia, 1:30:42, and Spain's Maria Vasco, 1:30:47.
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