Liu xiang plans to run for another two olympics
| World record holder China's Liu Xiang competes in the men's 110m hurdles final during the 15th Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, Dec. 12, 2006. Liu took the gold medal. |
| Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 27 – Olympic 110-meter hurdles world record holder Liu Xiang said that he won’t retire after the Beijing Olympic Games. In fact, he plans to run until he is 30 or even older. If he once retires and nobody in China still cannot compete with him, he will feel very upset.
He said this while giving an interview to a reporter from Shanghai Youth Daily last Saturday. “I’m not kidding at all,” he said to the reporter. “I’m being serious. Life is just like this: sometimes you needn’t be too serious, while at other times, you have to be earnest. ” Because he seldom talked seriously most of the time this year, the reporter thought that he was joking again this time. However, he said he was not. “I want to prove myself that I didn’t make the achievement by sheer luck.” “My performance has demonstrated that I’m no worse than Western runners. Now, I want to run for another two Olympics, in order to show that I can run for a long time, just like Allen Johnson.” And he further said that he would continue to run after the Beijing Olympic Games. “I have settled my plan. 2008 is not the end of my career. I will participate in the 2010 London Olympic Games,” he said. Previously, at the Doha Asian Games, he only told reporters that he would attend the Guangzhou Asian Games, and he didn’t said whether he would run after that. “As long as I follow my coach’s training program, I can definitely prove that my good condition can last for a long time. I can run for another two Olympics, no problem.” He also expressed his hope that some promising young athletes might come to the fore in China. “Sometimes I would think that apart from me, the rest of the good runners in hurdle race might be all Westerners. If I retire after the 2008 Olympic Games and no one in China still cannot challenge me, then Westerners will perhaps dominate the hurdle race by then, and that would make me very upset.”
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