Yang Jian said, "The organizing committee may have considered the competition between the media, and that the number of reports would be huge. But they really couldn't have imagined that Liu Xiang's influence would be so big. So many media from around the country, doing so many reports about every aspect have gathered at the track. Looking at it on the whole, it is overload."

And when Liu entered the stadium...every head turned to catch a glimpse. Flashbulbs erupted from the stands and the numerous media cameras, all focussed on one subject.

For such extraordinary build-up, Liu would run an ordinary race. He would cruise to the gold medal, running a comfortable time of 13.33 seconds to win his third consecutive national games title. But it was, what everyone came to see.