China's Liu more confident of London Olympics
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Winning an Olympic medal has been a dream for China's Liu Hong. After winning her event at the 11th Chinese National Games, the ace walker believed she could fulfil this dream in London.
The 22-year-old, who finished fourth in last year's Beijing Olympic Games, first barged into the Jinan Olympic Center to claim title in the women's 20km walk on Saturday.
The winning time -- one hour and 28 minutes 11 seconds -- is already among the world's best. With two more seconds fall, she can equal the Olympic champion and Russian world title holder Olga Kaniskinaset's 1:28:09 in Berlin.
However, the winner was still unsatisfied and said, "I can be more fast!"
"As I saw no one followed me when I entered the stadium, I slowed down and make no spurt in the final half lap. " Liu said in a delayed press conference on Saturday night.
In August's championships, Liu finally took the bronze with 1:29:10 in front of Berlin's Brandenburg Gate. It was the first walk medal for Chinese women in 10 years since Liu Hongyu and Wang Yan finished 1-2 in the Seville World Championships in 1999.
"The weather conditions here is better. Walking in Jinan is much cooler than in Berlin. All the finalists started very fast and even more fast than I played in Berlin. So my result is much better, but still has a distance to my best," said Liu.
Liu, born in central China's Jiangxi province, joined the national team in 2005. She won the 10,000m title at the world junior championships in 2006.
She took her first major walk title in the 2006 Doha Asian Games but in Osaka 2007, she finished a distant 19th.
Liu's personal best was 1:27.17 set in Beijing Olympics when she missed the podium finish narrowly in the Bird Nest stadium.
The gold winning performance with the world's top level result on Saturday made her believe that she should be more confident.
"I hope I can win an Olympic medal in London. Maybe it will be a golden one, you can guess," said a beaming Liu.
