A Chinese saying suggested that if you have failed three times, you are sure to make it in the fourth.
So Sun Haiping, long-time coach of men's 110m hurdles Olympic champion Liu Xiang, has every reason to believe that his disciple can win the title at the Osaka world championships to be held from Aug. 25-Sept. 2.
"We have a very big chance to win there," Sun told reporters after a news conference. "I have never been more confident before a world championships."
Liu, who also holds the world record of 12.88 seconds, has competed in three world championships. As a first timer of only 18 years old, he was eliminated in the second round at Edmonton in 2001. He then won a bronze at Paris in 2003 and took the silver at Helsinki two years ago.
"We are going there to bring home the gold medal. We want it very much. Liu Xiang will try our best to this end," Sun said.
Liu, who did not show up at the news conference, has been training in Beijing in the past few weeks and his form is at "80 per cent of his best," Sun said.
"He told me yesterday that he felt nearly perfect," Sun said.
Winning the title might be very possible, but breaking his own record is very difficult, Sun said.
The 24-year-old Liu set the world record in the Lausanne Grand Prix in July 2007.
"You will have to run three rounds in the world championships, unlike the Grand Prix," he said. "So the top priority is to win, not to break the world record."
If Liu won the gold, it would be the first world champion in eight years for Chinese athletics. China won their last world title in the 1999 Seville worlds thanks to their women's walker Liu Hongyu.
China will send 60 athletes -- 25 men and 35 women, to the Osaka worlds and only Liu has a serious chance of winning a gold.
Feng Shuyong, general coach of the Chinese team, said that their goal is to have more athletes in the top eight than last time.
"I also hope 35 percent of these athletes can achieve their personal best in Osaka. As for Liu Xiang, I hope he can run inside 13 seconds, which I believe can earn him the gold."
He said that all the athletes have signed a "responsibility deal" with the Chinese Athletics Association. But he refused to disclose the details.
China won two gold medals from track and field in the Athens Olympic Games. Besides Liu Xiang's, Xing Huina won the women's 10,000m race by surprise. But Xing, who has been plagued with injuries for a long time, will not compete in Osaka.
"She suffered a recurrence of injuries," Feng said.
China, who won four middle and long-distance gold medals in the 1993 world championships in Sttutgart, will have no athletes in these events in Osaka.
Source: Xinhua
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