SHANGHAI: Chinese star hurdler Liu Xiang thrilled a hometown crowd in Shanghai Sunday, starting his outdoor season with the fastest 110m of the year as he seeks to recapture Olympic glory at London 2012. Meanwhile, Jamaican sprint star Asafa Powell banished recent injury woes with a 9.95 seconds win in the men's 100 meters at the Diamond League event, after a pulled hamstring led to a last-place 200m finish a week earlier. In front of a rapturous crowd Liu, who in 2004 became China's first athlete to win an Olympic track gold medal, ended world No. 1 David Oliver's 20-race winning streak with a time of 13.09. The 27-year-old former world champion came in seventh at last year's indoor championships in Doha, and while Liu won a third straight Asian Games title in November, he was far from his personal best of 12.88. Dubbed the “flying man” in China, Liu said he has cut the number of steps before launching into the first hurdle from eight to seven as part of his efforts to make the podium in London. Jamaica's Powell, formerly the world's fastest man, said he also wanted to test his form as he starts an ambitious outdoor 100 meters season. He will square off with both his main rivals – the world's fastest man and fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt and American Tyson Gay – before the World Championships in South Korea in late August. Although he dominated Sunday's race, it was far from personal best is 9.72 – which he predicted he might beat before the meet. Bolt holds the world record with a time of 9.58. Jamaican Veronica Campbell-Brown, the fastest woman in the world last year, won the women's 100m (10.92), beating Carmelita Jeter, who clocked the year's fastest time – 10.86 – in Kingston. Campbell-Brown, who turned 29 Sunday, hailed the win as “her birthday gift and praised her reception from the “warm and welcoming” Chinese crowd. In the women's 400m hurdles, Jamaica's Kaliese Spencer, the world number one, won in a time of 52.20, seeing off challengers American Lashinda Demus and Olympic champion Melaine Walker, who returned after an achilles injury sidelined her last year. Nixon Kiplimo Chepseba ran the year's fastest 1500m in 3:21.42, beating fellow Kenyan and Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop, who came second despite running a season's best of 3:31.76. Croatian high jump star Blanka Vlasic, the 2010 International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) female athlete of year, won with the best jump of the season at 1.94m. – Agence France
