Liu Xiang a major boost for athletics box office at National Games
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Organisers said on Friday that China's hurdler Liu Xiang is the major boost for the athletics box office at the Chinese National Games.
Piao Wutong, a ticket sales official with the organising committee, told Xinhua on Friday that up to now 34,900 tickets for Liu's 110m hurdles final on Sunday had been sold out, accounting for 90% of whole day's number.
It was the highest sales among the six-day athletics events slated for Oct. 21 to 26. The best viewing seats for Liu's finals had all been sold out several days before.
Liu, the Athens Olympic champion, was due in the starting blocks for the 110-meter hurdles heats on Saturday and finals on Sunday if he goes on wheels.
In order to shut out the noise and focus on the meeting, the former world record holder had been training for days in a "secret" place.
On Thursday afternoon, Liu appeared for the first time in public in the training field beside the Olympic center stadium, when hundreds of journalists and fans flood in to watch him warm up until the nicknamed "flying man" broke through the siege.
The races will be Liu's first since he staged his comeback from Achilles tendon surgery last month at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix. He finished second in a wind-aided 13.15 seconds.
According to Shen Chunde, deputy director of the Chinese Athletics Association, the 110m hurdles race will be the few world's top level competition in track and field of the 11th Games.
