Liu speaks of unbearable pain

Liu Xiang, China's great hope for track glory at the Beijing Games, said he was sorry for his dramatic withdrawal from the Olympics 110m hurdles but that he had no choice.

A Chinese woman eats snack as she walks past an advertisement featuring defending Olympic 110 metres hurdles champion Liu Xiang.

BEIJING // Liu Xiang, China's great hope for track glory at the Beijing Games, said he was sorry for his dramatic withdrawal from the Olympics 110 metre hurdles but that he had no choice because pain from a foot injury became unbearable. "There's so many people concerned about me and who support me. I feel very sorry. But there's really nothing I could do," a downcast, disconsolate Liu told China Central Television in an interview aired today. A day earlier, Liu withdrew from his heat in the 110m hurdles, shocking and disappointing millions of Chinese supporters who wanted to see him defend his Olympic title on home soil. Liu appeared pale and tired, wearing a plain white T-shirt rather than the flashy red that has characterised the uniform of China's athletes at the Games.

The official Xinhua News Agency said CCTV recorded the interview last night and showed parts of it today for the first time. The 25-year-old Liu won China's first Olympic gold medal on the track in Athens four years ago, and became a superstar to rival NBA hero Yao Ming at home. His surprise withdrawal shocked China and his coach was among those who wept openly. China's communist leaders sent a message of support to Liu and his team that was printed today on the front page of Chinese newspapers - a sign of recognition of the athlete's popularity in China. "I didn't feel right when I was warming up before the race," Liu said, in Xinhua's translation of his comments. "I knew my foot would fail me. It felt painful when I was just jogging." He talked about running a competitive time just two weeks ago. "I didn't know why things turned out this way," he said. "I wanted to hang on. But I couldn't. It was unbearable. If I had finished the race, I would have risked my tendon. I could not describe my feeling at that moment." Speculation swirled for weeks that Liu was injured, and he trained in seclusion before he first appeared at the Bird's Nest stadium yesterday. In his warm-up, Liu grimaced through clenched teeth and limped gingerly after clearing two hurdles, but took to the blocks anyway for the first heat of the event for which he was the favourite. When the starter's gun fired, Liu launched out of the blocks but started hobbling immediately after the gun fired again to signal a false start by a different hurdler. Rather than go back to the blocks, he headed inside the stadium. Team doctors applied traditional Chinese medicine treatments to bring down the swelling on Liu's Achilles tendon after he returned to the Olympic village yesterday, according to Liu's web site, which had no further details. In the interview, Liu signalled he feared doing more damage to his damaged tendon, but vowed he would return to competition. "I know I have the ability, once my foot recovered," Liu said, according to a translation of the interview by The Associated Press. "Now the most important thing is to heal my injury. I still have a chance next year, after all I'm still at the peak. I must be optimistic, and I shouldn't blame everyone and everything but not myself. I will not easily give up." The China vice president Xi Jinping, the most-senior Communist Party leader overseeing the Games, sent a message to the General Administration of Sport to express sympathy and encouragement for Liu and his coach. Xi is widely viewed as the heir to President Hu Jintao. The country's leaders are paying attention to Liu's injury, and hope he is able to quickly return to health, said the message, which was printed on the front page of the People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, as well as other papers. "We all understand that Liu quit the race due to injury," Xi said. "We hope he will relax and focus on recovery. We hope that after he recovers, he will continue to train hard and struggle harder for the national glory." Liu's sponsors also signalled full support for their star athlete, taking out full-page ads in English- and Chinese-language papers and running spots on television. "Love the glory. Love the pain. Love sport even when it breaks your heart," said part of one Nike ad, over a photo portrait of a clear-eyed, unsmiling Liu looking directly into the camera lens.

*AP