Turning to sports China's Liu Xiang began his new season and Olympic year by beating arch-rival Dayron Robles of Cuba to win the men's 60-meter hurdles final at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix on Saturday.
Liu, the Athens Olympic champion ran a new personal best time of 7-point-4-1 seconds improving on his previous fastest time by 0-point-0-1 seconds.
Robles claimed the silver in 7-point-5-0 and Dexter Faulk of the US took the bronze in 7-point-5-4 seconds. The 28-year-old Chinese now holds an 8 to 5 advantage over Robles in head-to-head meetings. The victory is not only a good start for his new season but also bodes well for his outdoor season which this year includes the London Olympics.
Liu's coach Sun Hai-pin says if Liu could run under 7-point-5-0 in the indoor event then the former world-record holder is capable of running sub-13 seconds in the 110 meter event.
Saturday's victory raises optimism that Liu is in a good position to lower his personal best time of 12-point-8-8 seconds and to claim the gold at this year's Olympics.

劉翔在奧運年的“第一槍”格外驚艷！在18日的伯明翰室內田徑賽男子60米欄決賽中，劉翔以7秒41的個人生涯最好成績擊敗古巴名將羅伯斯，取得了自己在新賽季的“開門紅”。劉翔在預賽和決賽中兩次都是第一。他在決賽中將自己之前的個人最好成績7秒42提高了0.01秒，率先沖過終點。他也由此刷新了由他保持的亞洲紀錄?！　?ldquo;我沒有想到能跑這么好！七步上欄今天來看很成功！”賽后的劉翔十分興奮。羅伯斯以7秒50獲得第二。