China's 110-meter hurdles star Liu Xiang said on Friday he was not surprised to learn that his world record was broken by arch rival Dayron Robles.
Cuban Robles clocked 12.87 seconds in Ostrava, Czech Republic, on Thursday, shaving a hundredth of a second off the record Liu set at an IAAF meet in Lausanne, Switzerland in July 2006.
Liu, who is training in Beijing for the upcoming Olympics, said he learned the news Friday morning and didn't feel surprised at all.
"Congratulations to him. It must be a wonderful feeling to break the world record," Liu said. "Actually, I had expected it to happen someday, as Robles is very capable of running under 12.90 seconds."
Liu became China's first male Olympic champion in athletics when he tied Colin Jackson's world mark of 12.91 second to win the 110m hurdles final at the Athens Games in 2004.
Four years on, the 24-year-old is viewed as the host country's sole gold medal hopeful in track and field events at the Beijing Games.
Along with Liu, Robles is widely regarded as one of the top contenders for the men's 110m hurdles gold in Beijing.
"Robles has been my main rival over the past two years. Neither of us will show mercy at the Olympics, so let's wait and see what happens then."
Liu's coach Sun Haiping said the new world mark would not have big impact on Liu's preparations for the August8-24 Games and instead add motivation for Liu.
"It will inspire Liu Xiang to work harder. And we will continue our preparations without making changes to our training schedule," said Sun.
(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2008)