Track body to honor Liu in Shanghai
Print Edition
The Chinese Athletic Association will hold a ceremony next month for the country’s best-known hurdler Liu Xiang, who quit the sport earlier this month after battling long-term foot injury.
The special evening for the Olympic and world champion will be held at Shanghai Stadium during the 2015 IAAF Diamond League on May 17, the league organizers announced yesterday.
Liu ended his 19 years of professional career on April 7 with a statement on his Weibo account. The 31-year-old, struggling with injuries, wrote that it was a hard decision, but he had “no other choice.”
“He is a great athlete who created history for China’s athletics,” said Gu Shuhang, general manager of Shanghai Golden Grand Prix Co Ltd. “Shanghai Diamond League has deep ties with Liu, and the Chinese Athletics Association has chosen this occasion to bid farewell and express our best wishes to the beloved athlete,” Gu said.
Liu Xiang made seven appearances at the annual event since the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 2005. He won four gold medals (2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012), one silver (2009) and two bronze medals (2007 and 2010).
The track and field event became a regular feature in Shanghai a year after Liu won the 110 meters hurdles Olympic gold medal in Athens with a world record equaling 12.91 seconds in 2004.
Since then, the men’s 110m hurdles has been a major draw at the Diamond League here.
This year’s event will include 16 disciplines, eight for men and eight for women. Another local hurdler Xie Wenjun will be competing against world record holder Aries Merritt (United States), 2013 world championship top-three finishers David Oliver (US), Ryan Wilson (US), and Sergey Shubenkov (Russia), as well as France’s Pascal Martinot-Lagarde in the 110m hurdles.
The organizers also said yesterday that they had renewed their contract with the IAAF Diamond League till 2018.
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