China Report - Liu Xiang Fully Recovered; Table Tennis Dilemma Revealed

Liu Xiang Fully Recovered

The coach of Liu Xiang tells Around the Rings the Olympic champion hurdler has fully recovered from his Achilles injury.

"According to the doctor, Liu’s Achilles tendon is recovered to the level before being injured," Sun Haiping tells ATR after his charge was reexamined Monday in Los Angeles.

"Now we can increase the intensity of our training in preparation for next year’s Olympic Games."

Liu Xiang, the gold medalist in 110m hurdles at Athens 1994, started a 3-week overseas training tour earlier this month.He’s in Los Angeles for recovery training with his 110m teammate Shi Dongpeng, who finished ninth at the Daegu World Athletics Championships.

Liu exclusively tells ATR he feels very comfortable after three weeks of both hurdles training and physical therapy.

"I feel that the situation of my foot is better than before in terms of physical strength and so on," he says.

"However, I have to face the truth that I am not younger than I was before, and my physical fitness can’t be compared with before. Although I have more experience than before, it won’t be easy for me to set a world record again."

Liu’s old opponent Dominique Arnold is also training at the same site these days. Both of them broke the 110m world record at the same time back in 2006. Liu stresses that he has learned a lot from Arnold.

"He has his way of understanding hurdling, which helps me a lot, and I can learn lots of fresh things from him," Liu explains.

"Both of us have different actions and techniques, so I always need to learn from others so I can improve."

Sun says he believes that Liu is on the right track to prepare for the London Games.

"Liu’s training in the U.S. goes very well indeed, and he will be back to China soon to continue to work on details of his technique," Sun tells ATR.

"He is planning to go to Europe to take part in some indoor events in February, and then to participate in the World Indoor Championships."

Duan Shijie, the vice president of the General Administration of Sport of China, states that he would be satisfied if Liu could win a medal in London next year.

"I think that Liu Xiang is growing up now both mentally and physically. He will be achieving some good results in London if everything goes right. It will be a perfect ending for him as a sportsman. No matter what medal he gets from London, we will be pleased about it. Because he has tried his best," Dun toldmedia Tuesday in Beijing.

Liu, a former world record holder, was forced to withdraw from his heat at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 due to the injury. He later went to Texas for corrective surgery.

He was back to competition 13 months later and won silver at the IAAF world champs in September.

Table Tennis Dilemma

China is struggling to choose its two best men’s table tennis players to compete at the 2012 Olympics.

Head coach Liu Guoliang tells Around the Rings that Ma Long, Zhang Jike and Wang Hao all stand on equal footing for the time being. None of the three is yet to be granted a place on next year’s Olympic team.

Ma Long defeated reigning world champion and World Cup winner Zhang Jike at the sport’s2012 test event over the weekend to stay unbeaten since the end of August.

He is now competingwith Zhang and Wang Hao, the silver medalists from the past two Games, for China’s two singles spots at the London Games.

"Three players have equal opportunities," Liu, himself a double Olympic champion at the 1996 Atlanta Games, tells ATR.

"Ma Long and Zhang Jike had a successful season this year so far. Ma has not even lost to anyone for the last five months, and Zhang won both World Championships and World Cup titles this year. Both are good enough to represent China at next year’s Olympic Games."

However, Liu says he’s concerned about Wang Hao’s current situation.

The former world champion has not won any majors this year and lost to Zhang in the finals of both the world championships and the World Cup. He also didn’t reach the final of the London 2012 test event after a loss to Ma Long.

"Wang is not on his best form this year," says Liu. "He treats himself too nice – he couldn't work as hard as he did before. However, he has experiences of attending two Olympic Games, which is one of his advantages."

For the first time, the International Table Tennis Federation required each member country to submit two players for participation at next year’s Olympic Games back in June. Zhang Jike and Wang Hao were on that list, but the names are subject to change until April 2012.

China has won 20 of 24 gold medals on offer since table tennis was added to the Olympic program in 1988.

After Beijing 2008, the ITTF reduced the number of players each country can submit from three to two.

Written and reported in Los Angeles and Beijing by Tencent's Norman Li and Yiwei Wang .

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