Fast forward to the Bird's Nest stadium in Beijing five months from now and the picture of the World Indoor Championships might well look familiar. The US team got the most medals, the Russians were close behind and got a world record, and Liu Xiang's presence towered over everything else. China's supreme athletics star even got two victory ceremonies for his win in the 60-meter hurdles, since organizers played the anthem from Chile instead of China on the first attempt. It didn't faze him, just like he promised nothing will trouble him in the run-up to the Olympics. “I'm very peaceful deep in my mind,” he said. In his first competition in almost half a year, he took apart a world-class field, while his main rival Dayron Robles received a serious psychological blow, incredibly stopping early in his opening heat because he thought there was a false start. It was the second time this season he did it. “He made a big mistake,” said Liu, rubbing in the misery of his main rival. Liu himself can go back to training with another gold around his neck - to add to his world and Olympic titles. “He will gain in confidence,” said China coach Feng Shuyong. The US team should also take heart from its performance. Its team had few of the stars that should shine at the Olympics, with Tyson Gay, Jeremy Wariner, Allyson Felix and Sanya Richards all no-shows on the Mediterranean coastline. Yet the United States still topped the medals table with five golds and 13 overall. Russia was a close second with five golds, but 12 overall. The key came when Russia dropped its baton in the men's relay when it was neck-and-neck with the US. Otherwise the tally would have been a tie. The shot putters and the men's relay team were good as gold and heptathlete Bryan Clay, sprinter Angela Williams and hurdler LoLo Jones made the difference in the tightest of medal races with the Russians. At 37, Allen Johnson has seen many teams come and go, and his silver behind Liu buoyed him and the Americans. The Russians came with their best, and dominated the women's competition. Yelena Isinbayeva won her third straight pole vault gold and on Sunday Evgeniy Lukyanenko took the men's version, too. But the star was 1,500m runner Yelena Soboleva, who set the only world record of the championships, shaving .34 off her mark to finish in 3 minutes, 57.71 seconds. The title and record earned Soboleva $90,000. Such sterling form though means little in Russia, where qualifying for the Olympic team is as tough as in the United States. “It is very difficult. I am not sure I will even be going because there is so much quality around,” she said. “The championships in Russia are like the Olympics.” On a good day for Russia, Natalya Nazarova won gold in the 4x400m relay for her seventh overall gold to tie 800-meter runner Maria Mutola. Nazarova missed out on her eighth gold by just .01 second, losing to teammate Olesya Zykina in the 400. It also left Zykina, who ran the anchor leg in the relay, as the only double gold medalist of the championships. Mutola was the biggest disappointment of the weekend. The Mozambican missed out on a record eighth gold medal at the world indoors, getting boxed in like an inexperienced rookie and letting Tamsyn Lewis of Australia grab the title. At 35 and running in her last indoor championships, Mutola ran an awful tactical race and let Lewis sweep past her on the inside with 300 meters to go. “I got caught by surprise,” Mutola said. Mutola, who won her first gold in 1993, retired from indoor racing on Sunday. The star from Mozambique will focus on winning a second Olympic gold in Beijing. With one African star departing, another appeared to arrive. Abubaker Kaki of Sudan had a golden debut at 18 in the men's 800. “My coach told me to go to the front and run as fast as possible,” she said. At that age and with such vigor in his stride, that is all it takes. __
