China's Athens Olympic champion Liu Xiang will skip next year's Golden League series and focus mostly on the Beijing Olympics, local media reported on Thursday.

 

"The Golden League Oslo stop will clash with other competitions on our schedule, and the Rome and Paris stops will be so close to the Olympic Games, so we have decided not to take part," Liu's coach, Sun Haiping, was quoted as saying on the China Daily.

 

Liu, who keeps the world record of the men's 110 meters hurdles at 12.88 seconds and is China's main hope for an athletics gold in 2008, will use the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, Spain as his first warm-up tournament next year.

 

The 24-year-old will kick off his outdoor competitions in Osaka followed by a test event at the 2008 Olympics athletics venue in Beijing in May, said Sun.

 

After a few warm-up meets in Europe and the United States, Liu will remain in Beijing from the end of June to focus on his preparations for the Olympics.

 

(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)