Liu Xiang's bid to banish his Beijing Olympics nightmare ended in disaster today as the Chinese athletics icon crashed out of the 110m hurdles when he smashed into the first obstable.
The 29-year-old former world record holder - winner of the 2004 Olympic crown - had been left distraught four years ago after he was forced to withdraw just moments before his opening race in front of his home fans.
But his return to the Olympic arena today lasted only a split second as he smashed into the first hurdle with his left leading leg and crashed heavily to the floor.
Liu, who has been troubled by back and foot problems in the past month, eventually got up and hopped down the track to be embraced by his fellow competitors.
He was helped off the track by Britain's Andy Turner and Spain's Jackson Quinonez and taken away from the arena in a wheelchair and then to the medical centre.
Fellow competitor Balazs Baji of Hungary had waited for Liu at the finish line, taking the Chinese star's hand in his.
"When I was a kid, I saw him breaking a world record, winning the Olympic Games in Athens so he's a great idol for me. I'm sorry that he fell. It must be really bad for him," he said.
American Aries Merritt, the leading hurdler this season, said he felt sorry for Liu but didn't see anything untoward about him physically at the warm up.
"It was just terrible. For that to happen to one of the best hurdlers of all time is just a tragedy and I hope he's OK," said Merritt, whose achievement in running the fastest ever Olympic heat of 13.07 was overshadowed by Liu's distress.
"I just think he made a small, little mistake, like he ran up on the hurdles a little bit too quickly. He wasn't prepared to take the hurdle at such velocity and he hit it, and if you hit a hurdle in the fashion that he hit it there's no way to recover from something like that," he added.
Liu's dream of winning gold in front of his home crowd at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 ended in one of the great Olympic anti-climaxes as he turned up for his heat but failed to clear a hurdle, clearly hindered by his Achilles tendon injury.
His career has been hampered by injuries ever since he took gold and equalled the then world record held by Colin Jackson of 12.91 seconds at Athens in 2004.
He was to go on and better it with a time of 12.88 seconds and also win a world title in 2007 but a succession of injuries have taken their toll.
However, Liu had shown the old spark in the world championships last year and was flying when he was twice hindered by 2008 Olympic champion Dayron Robles and ended up third only to be promoted to second when the Cuban was disqualified from top spot.
