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Night of high drama on track
Athens - China celebrated a stunning double-gold athletic triumph at the Athens Olympics on Friday with Liu Xiang equalling a world record in the men's 110m hurdles and Xing Huina winning the women's 10 000m.
Liu equalled Colin Jackson's 11-year record of 12.91 seconds in storming to the men's 110m hurdles title and was followed by Xing's triumph.
The 20-year-old ran a personal best of 30 minutes 24.36 seconds to become the fourth Chinese female athlete to take gold.
It was a wonderful boost for the prestige of Chinese sport heading to the next Olympics in Beijing in 2008.
Russia's Tatyana Lebedeva captured the Olympic women's long-jump title with a best effort of 7.07m, but American triple Olympic champion Marion Jones missed out on a medal in fifth place.
Allegations of drugtaking
There was worse to come as a botched handover involving her led to the US team crashing out of the women's 4 x 100m relay final which was won by Jamaica.
It's been a horrible year for Jones, who has been subjected to allegations of drugtaking by her ex-husband CJ Hunter, while 100m world record-holder Tim Montgomery, her boyfriend and father of her one-year-old son, has been implicated in the scandal.
There was more heartache for Britain's Paula Radcliffe, who again failed to finish in the women's 10 000m after flopping in the marathon.
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