Waiting on the starting blocks, Liu Xiang looked beyond the hurdles to the finishing line. Several seconds later, Liu crashed into the first hurdle in his first round heat of the men's 110m hurdles at the London Olympic Games on Tuesday.

The 29-year-old Liu injured his right foot and limped off the track, ending his hope to regain Olympic glory in London.

Everything seemed to be deja vu when the former world record holder and 2004 Olympic champion withdrew from the 2008 Beijing Games because of a tendon injury in his right foot.

But this time Liu made things different. He hopped over the rest of the distance on his left foot to symbolically finish his race. He also stopped at a hurdle and kissed it, earning a rousing ovation from the 80,000 crowd at the Olympic Stadium.

"What Liu Xiang did today reflected the true Olympic spirit," said Chinese athletics team leader Feng Shuyong. "Winning is not so important, participation is what matters.

"We've all seen how hard it is for him. It is such a pity but his spirit is there."

"I think he made a lot of efforts over the past four years trying to do well. But in competitive sports, anything can happen.

Liu's spirit and sportsmanship won praise, not only from Chinese sport officials and millions of Chinese, but also from his foreign friends and opponents.

"I regard him as probably the best hurdler in history and have so much respect for him. It was horrible seeing him limp off like that so you have to go and help people," said British hurdler Andy Turner, who won the heat in 13.42 seconds and helped the struggling Liu off the track at the finish.

Turner's respect for Liu was echoed by Aries Merritt of the United States, who set the season leading time of 12.93 seconds before the Games.

"It's just a tragedy for that to happen to one of the best hurdlers of all time," said the American. "I do not think he is injured before the competition. He warmed up great. Everything looked fine. I just think he had a technical mistake. He got too close to the hurdle. He clipped it and it is really hard to recover after something like that."

Jamaican star sprinter Usain Bolt also lauded Liu Xiang a "true champion" despite his heartbreaking elimination from Games.

"It must be hard for that to happen for the second time in a row. He's a great athlete," said Bolt, who successfully retained his Olympic crown in men's 100m dash by clocking 9.63 seconds Sunday night.

"One of the most amazing things is that he came back. He switched legs and started leading with a different leg. He's a true champion. It's so bad for him," he added.

According to Feng Shuyong, Liu probably ruptured his Achilles tendon while taking off at the first hurdle and the intensive training leading up to the Games should be one of the reasons that caused the injury to recur.

"I think the problem happened with the taking off. We all know that at the moment of taking off the tendon sustains great pressure," said Feng. "The initial diagnosis from the medical staff is that he had a broken Achilles tendon.

"The injury is the same one he had in Beijing (2008). In the last several years he received good medical care, but the injury is still there. An Achilles tendon injury is almost impossible to recover fully." Liu was considered as a serious medal contender in London after he came out from the Achilles injury and adopted the seven-step to the first hurdle.

After winning a dramatic silver in the 2011 IAAF World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, Liu enjoyed an all-win record as he harvested three straight wins at the start of this outdoor season including setting a season fastest time of 12.97 seconds by then in the Shanghai leg of 2012 IAAF Diamond League in May and a wind-aided mark of 12.87 seconds in the Eugene leg early in June.

However, the Chinese superstar has been haunted by injury clouds since July 13, his 29th birthday, when Liu Xiang pulled out of the final of Diamond League London Grand Prix with back pain.

"He felt uncomfortable after the heats. Before we came here, Liu Xiang sometimes felt pain in the chest when breathing, especially during training and competitions," Liu's long-time coach Sun Haiping told Xinhua at south London's Crystal Palace stadium on that day. "We decided to pull out of the finals just for the sake of caution."

Just three weeks later, on their return from Germany training camp to London, Sun revealed Liu got further injury worries.

"In Germany, Liu felt pain in the foot where his old injury was. The doctor there said it was not serious. But I don't think so. I want to examine it further in London because I still worry about it," said Sun at Heathrow airport last Friday.

(Xinhua News Agency August 7, 2012)