AFP/Shanghai

China’s Liu Xiang reacts after winning the 110m hurdles event at the 2012 Samsung Diamond League competition in Shanghai yesterday. (Reuters
China’s Liu Xiang won the Shanghai Diamond League meet 110m hurdles yesterday in a season-leading 12.97sec as he strengthened his bid to reclaim the Olympic title.
Liu won it comfortably from America’s David Oliver and world champion Jason Richardson, to the delight of his screaming home-town fans, before ripping off his vest in an excited celebration.
Oliver timed 13.13 and Richardson clocked 13.16, while world indoor champion Aries Merritt was fourth. With just two months to go, Liu has laid down an important marker for the London Olympics.
Liu became China’s first Olympic track and field champion at Athens 2004 but four years later, he caused national angst when he dramatically pulled out injured in front of a packed Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing.
At last year’s world championships, Liu took silver behind Richardson in a highly contentious race after he was obstructed by Olympic title-holder Dayron Robles, who was later disqualified.
In other results, Jamaican Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown beat America’s Carmelita Jeter in the women’s 100m, while former world record-holder Asafa Powell raised his hopes for London by winning the men’s 100m in 10.02sec.
Powell, beaten by a resurgent Justin Gatlin in this month’s opening Diamond League meeting in Doha, timed six hundredths of a second quicker than America’s Michael Rodgers, who was recently hit with a nine-month, retroactive drug ban.
Powell, 29, has vowed to go “all out” at London 2012 as he bids to erase his reputation of shrinking on the big stage. But he is expected to be outshone by compatriots Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake, the Olympic and world champions.
“It was a good result. Technically it was good. We did a lot of work in Jamaica,” said Powell. “It’s still two months to the Olympics. “I’m satisfied. Shanghai is a good meet, the crowd is fantastic... I’m excited.”
But there was heartbreak for Australia’s Olympic pole-vault champion Steve Hooker, who bombed out after failing his first three jumps—a serious setback as he tries to battle back from an alarming crisis of confidence.
The fortunes of Hooker, who has also been hit by injury, sank so low that he was forced to qualify for London at a specially sanctioned meet held in front of just 150 supporters at his own, purpose-built training facility in Perth.
Hooker missed three jumps at 5.30 metres. China’s Yang Yansheng won the event with 5.65 while German Bjorn Otto, who has the season-leading vault of 5.82, was second.
Ethiopian distance legend Kenenisa Bekele also had an evening to forget as the Olympic champion finished fifth in the men’s 5,000m, nearly four seconds behind the winner, fellow Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet, who timed 13min 11.00sec.