Coach: 12.90 will secure London win China's 110m hurdles star, Liu Xiang (right), poses with his coach, Sun Haiping, during the launch...

Coach: 12.90 will secure London win

China's 110m hurdles star, Liu Xiang (right), poses with his coach, Sun Haiping, during the launch of 2012 Samsung IAAF Diamond League meet in Shanghai on Tuesday. [Provided to China Daily]

The time of 12.90 seconds should secure China's star hurdler, Liu Xiang, a gold medal at the 2012 London Olympic Games, his coach, Sun Haiping, predicted on Tuesday. 

"If Liu wants a top-three place, he must finish in 13 sec. No time over 12.90 sec will win the championship," Sun said after the launch of 2012 Samsung IAAF Diamond League meet in Shanghai, which will be held on May 19, on Tuesday. 

"Liu's physical condition is good and stable right now, although the Achilles' injury still poses a problem and plays up when the training is very intense. But the whole team has done an excellent job of controlling his old injury and avoiding new wounds," Sun said. 

Liu is now putting his energy into the second half of his Olympic campaign - outdoor training. 

With four months to go to the Games, the 2004 Olympic champion has concluded his indoor campaign and is now focusing on outdoor work with the aim of winning a medal in London against a field full of "arch-rivals like Dayron Robles and young fierce competitors". 

"If 28-year-old Liu can maintain the momentum he generated last month at the indoor meet in Birmingham, England, where he won gold and improve his strength to the peaks of previous years, the results will be ideal", Sun said. 

But it's easier said than done. 

"No athlete can maintain his fastest times over the first five hurdles to the destination," he said. 

But Liu is still striving to improve since his return from Istanbul, Turkey, where he narrowly missed out on his second indoor world championship title this month. He had been training on a 10-hurdle course and is expected to switch to a 12-hurdle one soon. 

The injury, which knocked him out of the 2008 Beijing Olympics and kept him off the track until late 2009, has yet to affect his performances this year, Sun said. 

Liu concluded his indoor campaign this season with one gold, one silver and one false start in three events in Europe. 

Also, his new technique, which reduces his approach to the first hurdle from eight to seven strides, helped Liu trim his Asian record for the 60m hurdles to 7.40 sec and substantially boost his confidence. 

At Tuesday's launch, the Chinese star stressed he would run outdoors in Asia, the United States and Europe in his buildup to the London Games. 

"The biggest rival will be myself," Liu said as he replied to a question about who will be his major threats at the Diamond League meet in Shanghai and later at the London Olympics. 

"They have their strengths and I have my own," he said. "It depends on being in form and refining techniques." 

One difficulty Liu will have to cope with, his coach said, was adapting to the cooler weather of London after sweltering in Shanghai. 

But Sun said the pressure of the London Games could not match that of Beijing 2008. 

"We feared something could go wrong and it did," he said of the Beijing Games. 

As for London, he said Liu's team was paying close attention to his rivals, including world record holder Robles and American David Oliver, who clocked last season's fastest time of 12.94 sec. 

"But like what Liu said, it's more of a matter about ourselves," the coach said. "You cannot blame a bad result on others' good performances if we do not prepare properly. 

"Still, after so many ups and downs, he is a seasoned man. He has a great ability to improve on his own."