Liu's coach warns he must run quicker for gold in Olympics

Scintillating as it was, a re-run of Liu Xiang's Osaka performance might not be enough to secure the Olympic 110 metres hurdles title next year, said the coach of the newly-crowned world champion.

'The time has earned us the world title but could still run short of an Olympic-winning result,' warned Sun Haiping, who appeared to be trying to dampen near-feverish expectations spurred by Liu's 12.95-second world championships victory last Friday.

'The race in Beijing could be more intense with my forecast of the championship-winning time going below 12.95 seconds, or even lower than the 12.90 mark,' Sun told Oriental Sports Daily.

The world record set by Liu in Lausanne, Switzerland, 13 months ago, stands at 12.88 seconds.

Sun noted that stress was a much bigger factor at the Olympics than it was at the world championships.

'In the worlds, you only have to run two heats before reaching the final,' said Sun. 'But at the Olympics, you have three. The extra stint could make a lot of difference.' Meanwhile, a senior official in the Chinese delegation at the world championships that concluded last night said he was satisfied with China's overall performance - but sharply critical of some perceived failures, notably in the walking event.