Hurdles to overcome

BEIJING – Liu Xiang and the entire nation of China looked forward to this moment for years: The defending Olympic champion lining up to run the 110-meter hurdles at the Beijing Games.

He didn’t even get to race.

Already grimacing before getting into his crouch, Liu pulled up lame just steps into the first round of qualifying Monday, leaving the Summer Games’ host country without one of its biggest stars – and far and away its biggest star in track and field.

He limped out of the block at the starting gun, took a few awkward steps, then pulled up when the second gun sounded to signal a false start. No one is disqualified by an initial false start, yet Liu tore the pieces of paper with his number off each leg and immediately headed for a tunnel.

While the other entrants in his heat prepared for the restart, Liu took a slow walk along a concrete path leading away from the rust-colored track where he was supposed to thrill a nation of 1.3 billion people.

Instead, he sat against a wall alone, that smiling face that adorns so many advertising billboards now sullen.

“We worked hard every day, but the result was as you see, and it’s really hard to take,” Liu’s personal coach, Sun Haiping, said at a news conference the hurdler did not attend.

Sun, who paused to wipe away tears while answering questions, said Liu was bothered by a right foot injury that has lingered for six or seven years – and not the right hamstring that has dogged him for months. The foot pain intensified Saturday.

There were signs of trouble as soon as Liu made his first appearance on the Bird’s Nest’s big screen. Once on the track, he stopped after clearing two hurdles during the warmup period, then crouched down and walked gingerly back to the starting area.

He peeled off his red shirt when others were lining up behind the blocks and seemed to wait forever before pulling a new jersey over his head.

“In watching warmups, we could see he wasn’t quite as strong as you expect him to be,” said former world record-holder Colin Jackson. “But we didn’t know it was as bad as it turned out to be.”

Liu’s hamstring problem forced him to pull out of a meet in New York on May 31 – the same night Usain Bolt first broke the world record in the 100 meters.

A week later, Liu lined up for the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore., but was disqualified for a false start. He hasn’t raced since and only rarely has made public appearances, training in seclusion.

The 25-year-old hurdler is as much a celebrity here as Houston Rockets center Yao Ming. Thursday night’s 110-meter hurdles final was expected to be one of the highlights of these Olympics: China’s Liu vs. Cuba’s Dayron Robles, the man who broke Liu’s world record in June – with 91,000 fans crowding into the Bird’s Nest to cheer on their man.

Liu’s withdrawal was by far the most stunning development on Day 4 of the track and field competition – of far more significance than any races that actually were run, including 100-meter champion Usain Bolt’s advancing to the second round in the 200.

“A 110-meter hurdles race without Liu is such a pity,” said Qatar’s Mohammed Issa Al-Thawadi, who was lined up in the adjacent lane for Liu’s heat. “I feel so bad for him.”

Now Robles, who won his heat in 13.39 seconds and well off his world record time of 12.87, becomes the clear favorite.

Yet another of the top contenders departed when two-time Olympic silver medalist Terrence Trammell of the United States grabbed the second hurdle and limped off the track with an injured left leg.

That was moments before Liu’s turn to take to the track. It’s been quite clear for quite some time that he would be under a tremendous amount of pressure at these Olympics, and yet Liu has insisted he didn’t feel it.

There was no way to know exactly what he was thinking Monday, because he didn’t speak to reporters.

And his countrymen?

“I think they will be disappointed,” said Wang Wei, executive vice president of the games’ organizing committee. “But they will understand. When somebody has an accident, you can’t help it.”

The exits of Liu and Trammell leave David Oliver, thought to be running as consistently as any of the U.S. hurdlers of late, as a serious medal candidate. His personal best of 12.95 seconds is only 0.08 second off Robles’ world record.

Asked before Liu lined up for his heat whether he knew that his Chinese rival appeared to be hurting badly, Robles said he didn’t care.

“I’m going to do what Usain Bolt did,” the Cuban said when asked about breaking his hurdles world record. “The track is perfect. Anything is possible in the final.”

Shooting

After blowing gold by shooting at the wrong target four years ago, American Matt Emmons was back in the lead on the last shot of the same event. He was determined not to make the same mistake again. He didn’t – he made a different one.

Emmons’ gun fired before he was ready. Instead of the measly 6.7 he needed, he got an atrocious 4.4, dropping him to the cruelest spot of all, fourth. At least last time he got silver.

“I didn’t feel my trigger shaking, but I guess it was,” Emmons said. “It just hit the trigger, the gun went off and I was like, ’Uh, that’s not going to be good.”’

Emmons is going home with three medals anyway: A silver from another event, plus a gold and a silver won by his wife, Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic. They hooked up after she consoled him following the flub in Athens.

Tennis

Rafael Nadal becomes No. 1 in the world on Monday. He’ll also wake up an Olympic champion.

Nadal overcame two set points in the second set and held every service game to beat Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 7-6 (2), 6-3.

The Williams sisters won the women’s doubles title by romping past a Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0. They also won in Sydney.

“I’m so excited, I can’t even speak,” said Venus, who has already won seven doubles Grand Slams and a gold medal in Sydney alongside her sister. But, winning as a family never grows old. “To share this kind of moment with your sister,” she said, gives her “chill bumps.”

In women’s singles, Russia became the first nation to sweep a tennis event since Great Britain in 1908 women’s singles. (Note that tennis was not a medal sport between 1924 and 1988.)

Elena Dementieva won over Dinara Safina 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, and Vera Zvonareva beat Li Na of China 6-0, 7-5 for the bronze.

Fencing

After missing out on a medal four years ago because of consecutive 45-44 losses, Keeth Smart and the U.S. men’s saber team got to the gold-medal bout with a pair of 45-44 victories. But they couldn’t get past the French in the finals.

Smart, Tim Morehouse and James Williams celebrated the silver – especially Smart, who endured the death of both parents and a rare blood disorder since 2004.

“It’s been four long years of heartache that we’ve had to relive over and over,” said Smart, who is leaving fencing to go to business school. “For us to go home with a silver medal is truly an honor.”

Gymnastics

Shawn Johnson keeps making memories in Beijing. Bad ones, even if she doesn’t act like it.

Two days after losing the all-around to teammate Nastia Liukin, Romania’s Sandra Izbasa – the very last competitor – grabbed the floor exercise gold that was almost in the American’s hands. Liukin got bronze in the event. Johnson barely flinched when Izbasa’s mark came up, and the 16-year-old American also had a hug for the winner.

“I just stayed calm and had a great time out there,” Johnson said. “I love to perform.”

China’s Cheng Fei lost for the first time in three years in women’s vault. North Korea’s Hong Un Jong won it. American Alicia Sacramone was fourth.

China dominated the men’s event finals, with Zou Kai winning the floor exercise and Ziao Qin taking pommel horse. Counting team and all-around, the hosts are 4-for-4 in men’s events.

Softball

The U.S. women won their 20th straight Olympic game with as little drama as they usually provide. Monica Abbott pitched five perfect innings and Crystl Bustos, Jessica Mendoza and Tairia Flowers homered in an 8-0 victory over the Netherlands.

The Americans have outscored opponents 44-1, posted five shutouts and hit 12 homers. The latter stat breaking one of the few Olympic records they didn’t set in Greece.

Next up: China, which lost 2-1 to Taiwan to get eliminated from the medal round.

In other games, Japan beat Venezuela 5-2 and Australia beat Canada 4-0.

Boxing

The Americans won’t be going home empty-handed, thanks to heavyweight Deontay Wilder getting to the semifinals, assuring him of at least bronze.

“I don’t want the world to remember Team USA as being failures,” Wilder said.

The only other U.S. boxer left, Demetrius Andrade, was ousted by South Korea’s Kim Jung-joo, a bronze medalist in Athens.

Beach volleyball

There won’t be an all-American women’s finals.

Elaine Youngs and Nicole Branagh were ousted with a loss to a Chinese team. Earlier Sunday, Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor advanced to the final four with a straight-sets victory over Brazilians Ana Paula and Larissa.

Women’s volleyball

The U.S. closed preliminary play by beating Poland in five sets. The Americans already secured a spot in the quarterfinals.

Cuban and Brazil finished prelims undefeated.

Poland, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Algeria were eliminated.