Xie overcomes hurdles to sparkle at Diamond League in Shanghai

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 Xie Wenjun (right) of China crosses the finish line to win the 110-meter hurdles ahead of Sergey Shubenkov at the IAAF Diamond League in Shanghai last night.

Shanghai hurdler Xie Wenjun emerged as the bright new hope for China by winning the 110-meter hurdles at the 2014 IAAF Diamond League on home turf, beating star names like reigning world champion David Oliver and former world champion Dayron Robles.

Xie's time of 13.23 seconds in the last event of the meet at a hushed Shanghai Stadium last night was also his personal best.

"I'm surprised by my performance today," said a thrilled Xie. "The home atmosphere was great, and the result was a payback for all my recent hard training."

Egged on by a crowd of more than 30,000 people in the stands, Xie, starting from the third lane, faced fierce competition from Sergey Shubenkov, who started next to him in the fourth lane.

The Russian held a half-body advantage over Xie after the first five hurdles, but the Chinese athlete managed to overtake at the seventh hurdle, and kept the edge over the rest of the participants until the finish line, much to the delight of the home fans, who have clamoring for success on the track in the absence of another local hero, former world and Olympic champion Liu Xiang, out due to foot injuries.

Xie's coach Sun Haiping, who is also Liu's long-term mentor, was also surprised by the result. However, he pointed out that "technical problems" still existed in Xie's performance last night, and said that the other athletes were not in their best form and didn't put up much of a challenge.

Sun told media on Saturday that Liu is hopeful of getting back on track next April or May if his recovery goes well. Xie also expressed his wish to compete with and against Liu.

"I hope I can compete for China together with Liu Xiang next year. He has taught me a lot, and I hope we two can continue to help boost track and field in China," Xie said.

Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France finished second (13.26) and the bronze went to defending champion Oliver (13.28) of the United States, who hit the third and fourth hurdles during the race. Shubenkov ended up fourth in 13.30, while Cuba's Robles merely managed a 6th-place finish in 13.48.

Liu was seen applauding his junior compatriot from the stands last night. The local star has sweet memories from this track, winning titles in 2005 and 2006, when the Shanghai event was still in its Golden League era. He was also crowned hurdles champion in the 2011 and 2012 Diamond League races in Shanghai, but missed last year's event due to injury.

Under Sun's acute guidance, 23-year-old Xie has always regarded Liu as his idol, suggesting during a pre-event meet with media that his goal was to "approach" Liu's performance, but even he may not have thought about surpassing China's track and field icon.

The Diamond League seems to be a happy hunting ground for Xie as his previous personal best also came in Shanghai last year. He finished third by clocking 13.28 seconds in a race won by Oliver (13.21).

In other results last night, American sprinter Justin Gatlin won the men's 100 meters clocking 9.92 seconds. Jamaica's Nesta Carter was 0.2 seconds back in second and American Michael Rodgers was third. China's Su Bingtian missed the podium, finishing fourth in 10.20.

Robert Biwott of Kenya won the men's 800 while the 5,000 gold went to Yenew Alamirew of Ethiopia.

Nigeria's Blessing Okagbare got a double victory, winning the women's long jump with a leap of 6.86 meters on her first attempt and then capturing the 200 in 22.36 seconds.

Jamaica had just one winner in Novlene Williams-Mills, who took the women's 400.

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