Olympic champion Liu Xiang skipped several competitions to nurse
a "minor" injury and got a full recovery, which won agreement from
a Chinese sports medicine expert Wednesday.
"Because of the injury, he was sidelined for a long time and
missed several competitions but he got a good recovery, which is
well worth it," said Li Guoping, chief medical officer of Chinese
Olympic Committee, who organizes the 29th FIMS World Congress of
Sports Medicine here, starting on Wednesday through to Friday.
"He maybe missed a few medals now but there will be more room
for him to improve in his performance in the future with
fitness,"he said.
Liu incurred an ankle injury after a training session in middle
February. Although doctors said that no bones nor ligament were
injured, they suggested a careful rehabilitation.
Liu's coach Sun Haiping was once optimistic about his chance of
comeback in early March but it turned out that Sun, according to
doctors advice, gave his protege nearly two months for nursing an
injury that traditionally is ignored by Chinese athletes and
coaches.
"It is better for the athletes this way," Li said. "I am happy
to see that national team coaches begin to pay more attention to
doctors' advice and give athletes longer time to recover. It will
benefit them in the long run."
Liu became Chinese national treasure after the 23-year-old
clinched the country's first-ever sprint gold in the 110m hurdles
at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.
He was forced to drop out a national indoor meet in Shanghai in
February and Moscow indoor meet in March due to the injury.
The Shanghai-based hurdler had complained of fatigue after a
busy schedule of competition and public appearance last year. Sun
said this year would be Liu's "relaxing time", reducing the number
of competitions by half compared with last year.
There will be only two major events for Liu this year: the
Athens World Cup in August and Asian Games in Doha in December.
(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2006)