"Flying Man" Liu Xiang announced his coming back with a record-breaking performance to become one of the most spotlight-catching athletes at Guangzhou Asiad.

Clocking a decent 13.09 seconds in the men's 110 meters hurdles final at the Asian Games, the 27-year-old former Olympic and world champion dominated the race to claim his third straight Asiad, with his season best time that broke the Asian Games record and made him the world third fastest hurdler in the year.

Liu's attendance exhausted the capacity of the eighty thousand seated stadium, leaving behind him unceasing applause and cheers on his way in and out.

"Liu is our brightest star in Guangzhou," said Feng Shuyong, head coach of China. "He did a perfect job here."

Liu limped off the field of the national stadium Bird's Nest in the 2008 Beijing Games even before he started running in the first heat to defend his Olympic glory, leaving millions of Chinese fans dumbfounded with the blow.

He was later treated in the United States, receiving surgery on his right Achilles' tendon.

Liu wasn't China athletic team's only surprise in Guangzhou. Lao Yi, a 25-year-old local sprinter who turned out to be a freshman on international stage, jumped into fame at the Games by grabbing two golds from men's 100m race and 4x100m race.

He won a historic gold medal to become the first Chinese to lift the men's 100 meters at Asian Games. "My next goal is to get good results in next year's world championships," said Lao. "I am quite confident of myself."

"Lao surprised us with his ice-breaking race, for no Chinese sprinter had been crowned at his event since the very first Asian Games," commented Feng.

However, the Chinese team, which brought home 14 titles four years ago in Doha, cut down their gold deposit to 13 on the home court.

"Some of our athletes have been plagued by injuries," said Feng. "Bai Xue, the world champion on women's 10000 meters race last year, finished only eighth. Her injury on Achilles's tendon brought down her training level."

"Li Yuanzhe underperformed on men's long jump, also because of injury."

China's Li Yanfeng and Li Ling reached world level on women's discus throw and javelin throw respectively, but other local gold medallists failed to get close to the world record.

India became the most surprising team by increasing their gold collection from Doha's one to Guangzhou's five. Their five golds mainly came from women's race.

The Indian delegation opened their first day with two golds. Preeja Sreedharan overtook defending champion Kayoko Fukushi of Japan in the last lap to win the gold in a personal best 31:50.47, while Sunil Kumar also clocked her personal best of 9:55.67 to win the women's 3,000m steeplechase.

"I feel very proud to have won the gold medal after missing out on a medal in the Commonwealth Games. I was very disappointed with the Commonwealth Games performance and was determined to do well in the Asian Games," said 28-year-old Sreedharan.

"I also give credit to the government for the money it spent on the month-long training which we got. I also want to give credit to my coach Nikolai Snesarov of Belarus and the Sports Authority of India."

India's other three golds came from women's 4x400 relay race, women's 400m hurdle and men's 400m hurdle.

Bahrain also closed the Games with five golds, mostly came from the sprint events. Japan, South Korea and Kazakhstan got four titles apiece. Other six delegations including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Iran, Thailand and Tajikistan harvested golds.

(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2010)