China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang reached the semifinals of the men's 110 meters hurdles by winning his heat at the world athletics championships on Wednesday.
Liu, also holder of the world record of 12.88 seconds, clocked 13.36 in the long-awaited appearance.
"I only want to enter the final eight now," Liu said. "Osaka is a very familiar place to me. I have been here for six times."
He added, "It was easy, I was not forced to show my best. First I need to be in the finals then we can speak about my goals. Before the race I was little bit tired, but now I'm ok."
This is the fourth successive time for Liu, China's most famous athlete, to compete in the world championships. He failed at the first round in 2001, won the bronze in 2003 and finished second two years ago in Helsinki, only after French youngster Ladji Doucoure.
Liu's two fellow Chinese Shi Dongpeng and Xing Xian also went through to the semifinals.
Xing finished fourth in 13.56 to qualify from the first heat and Shi, China's No. 2 hurdler, won heat 5 with a personal best of 13.22 seconds.
Defending champion Doucoure, who has been plagued with injuries in the past two years, also entered the semifinals, placing second in his heat in 13.61 seconds, after Cuba's rising star Dayron Robles in 13.41.
Twice Olympic silver medalists Terrence Trammell of the United States won heat 1 in 13.40.
Osaka has been regarded as Liu's lucky place. The 24-year-old has won several times in the annual Grand Prix here.
With former Olympic and world champion Allen Johnson and American record holder Dominique Arnold pulling out of the championships, Liu is expected to have an easy road to his first world champion, although his coach Sun Haiping played down his winning chance, saying, "Our goal is to enter the top three."
The men's 110m hurdles semifinal will be held in Thursday and the title be decided on Friday. And the title race is expected to be held among Liu, Trammell, Robles and Doucoure.
Trammell, who has been in Japan for two weeks and a half compared with Liu's five days, said he was also aware of the tough competition ahead of him.
"I was aware that some of the guys in my heat would try to have a shot at their lifetime best," he said. "But for me the most important was to get the feeling of competition and get through it."
Robles, 21, said that he is confident of defeat Liu Xiang. "I want to be the fastest hurdler in the world, so I will fight for the gold medal. This means that I will have to defeat Liu Xiang."
Source: Xinhua
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