Monday 29 August 2011

Liu upgraded to silver after controversy

Liu upgraded to silver after controversy
China's Liu Xiang was upgraded to the silver medal in the men's 110m hurdles at the World Championships after race winner Dayron Robles was disqualified in Daegu.
Meanwhile, Briton and European champion Andy Turner was also upgraded to the bronze medal.
He had finished fourth behind Robles, who was involved in a clash with Liu during the closing stages.
The pair touched arms in the final 30m, something which clearly hurt Liu's chances - he had been leading at the time.
Instead Robles crossed the line first in 13.14secs, 0.02 ahead of American Jason Richardson, with Liu in third (13.27).
However, the Chinese team soon protested, Robles was disqualified for obstruction and a counter-protest from the Cuban team was rejected by the IAAF jury of appeal.
Robles was disqualified under IAAF rule 163.2 which disqualifies "any athlete who jostles or obstructs another athlete so as to impede his progress".
Richardson was instead crowned champion, with Liu upgraded to silver and Turner, who had finished in 13.44, the same time as American David Oliver, taking the bronze.
That completes a stunning turnaround in fortunes for Turner, who recovered from losing his lottery funding for the 2009 season to win European and Commonwealth gold last year and now has a global medal in his collection.
He said: "I've got mixed emotions - I don't know what to do. I want to cry, but I don't want to cry - I won't believe this is happening until I have got that medal round my neck!
"I've thought about this and dreamt about winning a world medal after my success in Barcelona last year but it was a big step and I just won't believe it until I've got that medal."
After all the changes, Turner's team-mate Will Sharman was joint fifth in 13.67.
In the immediate aftermath of the race, Robles had described his clash with Liu as "normal" on Channel 4 and denied he was concerned about a possible protest from the Chinese.
"It's normal in the hurdles. Every athlete has a different technique.
"I feel great."
That would not last long, however.
Liu had added: "I felt like someone touched my elbow and I lost my balance for a while but then I managed to stabilise it.
"It happens all the time in competitions, but this time, in the final of the World Championships, it was kind of different. I am okay with everything that happened today and this is a good achievement for me. I tried my best, no regrets.''

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