China's track icon Liu Xiang has fallen at the first hurdle in the qualifier of the London Olympics men's 110m race.

Liu Xiang crashed and fell heavily into the hurdle with his left leading leg. His coach Sun Haiping said before the heat that the foot injury is still troubling the star hurdler.

Liu Xiang holds the Olympics record of 12.91 seconds. He set the record and won the first gold medal for Chinese male track and field athletes in the 2000 Athens Games.

But his Achilles injury forced him out of the Beijing Games four years ago. Liu's personal best of 12.88 seconds created at the Super Grand Prix in Lausanne in 2006, makes him the second fastest hurdler after Cuba's Dayron Robles.

His team mate Xie Wenjun clocked 13.43 seconds, coming third and making it into the semifinal. Shi Dongpeng also missed out on the semi-final in Tuesday's qualification race, with 13.78 seconds.

(CNTV.cn August 7, 2012)