Chinese Olympic champion Liu Xiang won the 110-meter hurdles at the Yokohama track and field meet yesterday, his second victory in three days after powering his way to the title at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix on Saturday.

Liu, who equaled the world record of 12.91 seconds to win gold at the Athens Olympics, clocked 13.08 yesterday, beating Maurice Wignall of Jamaica and Sergey Demidyuk of Ukraine.

Four-time world champion Allen Johnson of the US and 2005 world champion Ladji Doucoure of France did not compete in Japan.

"It is a good result. And the time is the same I achieved at the Helsinki World Championships. I am very satisfied with the result. I came here to win and I did," said Liu, whose bid to become world champion failed in Helsinki in August when he finished in second place, 0.01 second behind Doucoure.

"It was comfortable. I think I will be able to run under 13 seconds again sooner or later but I'm not losing sleep over it or putting pressure on myself," Liu said.

Apart from Liu, several other big guns won their events.

Athens Olympic gold medallist Justin Gatlin defended his men's 100 meters title while Allyson Felix won the women's event to make it an American sprint double.

Gatlin clocked 10.04 seconds to beat Olusoji Fasuba of Nigeria into second and Christopher Williams of Jamaica into third, with the two both marking 10.13 for a photo finish.

World 200m champion Felix won the women's 100m in 11.05, beating her compatriot Me'Lisa Barber and Julia Chermoshanskaiya of Russia.

However, undisputed pole vault queen Yelena Isinayeva of Russia failed to clear 4.50 meters.

Tatiana Grigorieva of Australia won the pole vault with a mark of 4.10 meters.

(China Daily September 20, 2005)