Thu, Mar 12, 2009 page20

• Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang takes up politics

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  Chinese athletics hero Liu Xiang (劉翔) said yesterday he had political ambitions as he made his first appearance at a parliamentary body since being appointed a delegate.

  Speaking to reporters as he joined delegates to the annual session of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), an advisory body to the Chinese Communist Party, Liu responded to criticism over his non-­appearance last year.

  “As a new delegate to the CPPCC, I hope to be able to propose and contribute to policy. To participate in politics is an honorable responsibility,” Liu said, according to the China News Service. “It is the highest honor for me to make efforts to render service to my nation and people.”

  Liu told delegates preparations for the Beijing Olympics prevented him from attending last year, while recent ankle surgery delayed his appearance at the current session until yesterday, the penultimate day, the report said.

  China’s state-run media had in recent days criticized Liu and other ­celebrities for not showing up at the meeting and questioned their commitment to the advisory body.

  Liu, 25, became a national hero at the 2004 Athens Games when he won the 110m hurdles, becoming the first Chinese man to win an Olympic sprint gold medal. Due to his star status, Liu was appointed a member of the advisory body in 2007, and was due to make his first appearance last year.

  He greatly disappointed at the Beijing Games in August last year, when an Achilles Tendon injury forced him out of competition.

  Liu briefed fellow delegates on his recovery from his ankle surgery that was performed late last year in the US, the China News Service said.

  “At present my injury is healing and my recent recovery has been pretty smooth,” Liu said.

  After returning to China this week, Liu said he had set his sights on the 2012 London Olympics. But his coach said it was unlikely he would be able to defend his 110m hurdles crown at this August’s world championships in Berlin.

  Meanwhile, the sports ministry in Guangdong Province says it has undertaken X-ray bone analysis on 15,000 youth athletes and found a fifth of them had misrepresented their age, local media reported.

  Suspicions of age faking have dogged Chinese sport over the last couple of years and at one stage threatened to cause huge embarrassment for the hosts at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

  Guangdong is hosting the Asian Games in its capital, Guangzhou, next year.

  The athletes tested were the top eight in each event at provincial youth competitions last year and all those who had signed up for this year’s Provincial Games, a Guangdong sports bureau official told the Guangzhou Daily newspaper.

  The result showed 3,000 were older than they claimed, 2,000 of whom were no longer eligible for any youth sport and 1,000 who should have competed in different age categories. Sixteen athletes in one event had faked their age and the worst offenders were up to seven years older than they were allowed to be, the official said.
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