Athletics: China's Liu Xiang may run hurdles for quake students
Posted: 07 May 2009 1416 hrs

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BEIJING: Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang may publicly display his skills for the first time since he pulled out of the Olympics to students in an area that was badly hit by last year's earthquake, according to state media.

The 110-metre hurdling champion is due to visit Beichuan county in southwest China's Sichuan province to mark the first anniversary of the May 12 8.0-magnitude quake, the Beijing Times reported, citing unidentified sources.

Liu is scheduled to participate in a charity event for a new school and will also teach a physical education class, where he is expected to show the children his hurdling skills, the report said.

Liu, 25, has been in training in secret since he returned to Shanghai in March after three months in the United States, where he underwent surgery on his right Achilles tendon in December.

The injury forced him to pull out of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing in August.

The hurdler has been cautious about returning to competition, saying he would not race in the August World Championships in Berlin and that he did not know if he would participate in a September meet in Shanghai.

"I myself don't know when I can return. But I think that it should be possible this year," he told Chinese journalists last month.

Liu, a 2004 Olympic gold medallist, was one of China's great hopes for the Beijing Olympic Games last year. But he shocked the nation by pulling up lame in a qualifying heat.

In addition to his trip to Sichuan, Liu has also shot a television programme remembering the earthquake.

The quake was the biggest to hit China in more than 30 years and left nearly 87,000 people dead or missing.


- AFP/so