Former Olympic high hurdles champion Liu Xiang of China defeated the 2008 Beijing gold medallist Dayron Robles Saturday in their first race since the Cuban was disqualified for obstructing Liu at last year's world championships. Liu clocked a national record 7.41 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles at the Birmingham indoor meeting, nine hundredths of a second ahead of Robles. World record holder Robles was disqualified in Daegu after crossing the line first. The gold medal was awarded to American Jason Richardson with Liu getting the silver. Commonwealth 100m champion Lerone Clarke upstaged fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell by winning the men's 60 meters in a national record 6.47 seconds. Another Jamaican, Nesta Carter, was second with former world 100m record holder Powell finishing third. Former world long jump champion Tianna Madison of the United States, who has re-emerged as a sprinter, won the women's 60m in 7.07 seconds. Ethiopia's Genzebe Dibaba made no contest of the women's 1,500m, running on her own after the pacemaker dropped out to win in four minutes 01.33 seconds. Britain's world silver medallist Hannah England was more than eight seconds back in second place. British women's pole vault record holder Holly Bleasdale, who leaped 4.87 meters in France last month to thrust herself into contention for an Olympic medal in London this year, defeated Poland's Anna Rogowska with a height of 4.70 meters. Bleasdale's teammate Jessica Ennis won the 60m hurdles in a personal best and world leading time of 7.87 seconds. Pearson dazzles Australia's world champion hurdler Sally Pearson clocked two Olympic qualifying times in dual victories at the Sydney Track Classic Saturday. Pearson posted her fastest-ever time in Australia of 12.66 seconds to win the 100m hurdles and returned later in the meeting to register another London Olympic qualifying mark in the 200m with 23.06secs. She finished well ahead of American Nia Ali (13.37) and New Zealand's Andrea Miller (13.46) to record her 21st win in 23 races. Pearson claimed Australia's only gold medal at the World Athletics Championships in South Korea last year with a new championship record of 12.28secs — the fourth-fastest time ever run in the 100m hurdles. In the men's 400m Australian John Steffensen downed Kenyan 800m world record holder David Rudisha in 45.61secs. Rudisha pushed Steffensen to the line and finished second in 45.82. Kenyan world and Olympic 1,500m champion Asbel Kiprop won his first race in Australia in the 800m in 1:45.9. There were also victories for Olympic champions in two women's field events with New Zealand's world champion Valerie Adams winning the shot put in 20.67m and American Stephanie Brown-Trafton clinching the discus.
