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Liu leads top five performances at National Games
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-29 09:02

Leaping Liu shines

Star hurdler Liu Xiang lived up to expectations in the final of the men's 110 meters hurdles at the Olympic Sports Center on Oct 25.

In front of 60,000 fans, the former Olympic and world champion claimed his third National Games gold medal in a solid 13.34 seconds.

It was Liu's second appearance since his injury-induced withdrawal from the Beijing Games.

His comeback race was at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix meet last month, where he ran a wind-aided 13.15 for second place, narrowly beaten by world No 2 Terrence Trammell of the US.

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A splash in the pool

Olympic champion Liu Zige shattered the women's 200m butterfly world record on Oct 21.

In a sensational swim, Liu clocked two minutes, 1.81 seconds to win the gold, well ahead of archrival Jiao Liuyang, the Olympic runner-up, who finished a distant second in 2:05.57. It was the only world record broken in the pool at the Games.

Historic jump

Young triple jumper Li Yanxi, of Hebei, won the gold medal with an amazing effort of 17.59 meters on Oct 26. It beat the 28-year-old national record of 17.34m set by Zou Zhenxian at the Rome World Cup in 1981. Li's technique was considered "perfect" by Zou, who said he had a great chance to medal at the 2012 London Games if he continues to make progress.

Four-gold sweep

Women's tennis player Peng Shuai lifted herself into the superstar ranks at the National Games by sweeping all four titles on offer to her.

She led her Tianjin team to gold before the official opening of the Games and claimed the other three in the mixed doubles, doubles and singles. In the women's doubles final, Peng and her partner, Li Zhe, upset two-time Grand Slam winners Zheng Jie and Yan Zi of Sichuan, 6-4, 6-1.

PLA defeated

The defending men's basketball champions, the PLA (People's Liberation Army), suffered a shock 103-95 defeat to Guangdong in overtime on Oct 27 and failed to reach the National Games final for the first time in 34 years.

The PLA side, a National Games powerhouse which won the previous five tournaments, came back from a 17-point deficit in the fourth quarter to level the score at 84-84. However, Guangdong took charge in overtime and later went on to beat hosts Shandong in the final.