Sports officials are setting up a special team of experts for China's 110m hurdles star Liu Xiang to even further boost his gold medal chances at the 2008 Olympics.

Liu seems unstoppable after breaking world record in July in Lausanne. However officials from the sport's governing body said Team Liu Xiang would aim at reducing the star's injuries and help him acclimatise to local conditions.

"In order to get well prepared for the 2008 Olympic Games, we have set up a special team to make sure of Liu's un-interrupted training, and help deal with other problems," said Luo Chaoyi, director of China Track and Field Administration Centre.

According to Luo, the centre will also organise high-level test competitions in China for Liu and other athletes, in a bid to gain home-based experiences when competing.

"Liu Xiang has kept his form very well during the daily training. But he was still hit by injury early this year. And it is likely to have injury again before the 2008 Beijing Olympics," said Yu Weili, head coach of the national track and field team. "Besides, competing on home soil in 2008 is much likely to be disturbed by different factors. If we can not handle the problems in right ways, Liu's preparations will suffer a blow."

Liu has climbed to third place in the latest IAAF 110m-hurdle rankings following his victory in Stuttgart. The reigning Olympic champion and world record holder sprinted to an outstanding 12.93 seconds in the World Athletics Final last week, setting a new record of the tournament.

The record-smashing performance gave him 1469 points and improved his average to 1377.

Cuba's 19-year-old Dayron Robles, who finished second in the same race in WAF, moved into the lead of the event rankings (1385), passing previous leader Terrence Trammell of the USA (1383).

Shi Dongpeng of China is at 24th with 1207 points.

Liu still has two major international occasions this month.

He will compete at World Cup at this weekend in his lucky place, Athens, where he won the Olympic gold medal in 2004.

Then, Liu will come back home to challenge world's elite hurdlers in Shanghai Golden Grand Prix next weekend.

Change of training idea

Luo said Liu and his coach's methods of training have been in line with the world's advanced concept. "Liu's coach Sun Haiping sticks to a high-intensity training system throughout the year, including every practice and daily training class," he said. "It is different from our traditional training concept.

"After we sent our 400m squad to USA for resembled training, invited Italian marathon coach to China and paid a visit to long-running powerhouse Kenya, we found Sun adopts the same training methods as those, who have developed a number of word's top athletes," said Luo.

China started to send its athletes overseas to train two years ago in a bid to learn the advanced training system. "We did not hope to have immediate improvement, but want to know how their athletes are trained," he said.

Liu said China would continue to send as many athletes abroad as possible. "In 2007, we will send our 400m squad to US again and train with multi Olympic and world champion Michael Johnson. We want our athletes and coaches know how to put advanced ideas into practice," he said.

"Increasing co-operations with track and field powerhouses will have more Chinese athletes and coaches involved, and help improve China's overall level."

(China Daily September 14, 2006)