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Tue 08 Aug 20081.3 billion people lament as Liu Xiang limps out
BEIJING 2008 ATHLETICS:A BLOW TO the very heart of China. Handsome, charming, intelligent and famously fast, champion hurdler Liu Xiang was China's secret weapon, an athlete who bore the hopes and dreams of 1.3 billion people on his shoulders, a man who was simply not allowed to lose. And in the Bird's Nest stadium, incredibly, he lost.
Imagine Eamonn Coghlan crossed with Sonia O'Sullivan and you get the idea. China was stunned when national hero and 110 metres hurdles Olympic champion Liu Xiang hobbled out of the Games injured yesterday, and a country's dreams of gold in a discipline in which China has only recently emerged, were dashed.
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