Chinese high hurdler Liu Xiang, who opened his outdoor season on Sunday with a fabulous time of 13.20 seconds, will run in the second stage of the Chinese Grand Prix Guilin on Thursday.

The 21-year-old Liu, bronze medalist in last year's world championships in Paris, is Chinese athletics' biggest medal hopeful in the Athens Olympic Games.

"I am very happy as this will give me confidence for the future," he said. "I will do all I can to get one medal at the Olympic Games."

Liu took the silver medal at the world indoor championships in Budapest crushing his own Asian indoor record with a fast time of 7.43. He showed brilliant form again last Sunday in Nanning with 13.20, his third best time and the fastest time on home soil.

Last year he started with a 13.32, also in Nanning, and then went to record 13.21 in Guangzhou in April.

The Shanghai-born athlete shot to fame in 2002 when he clocked 13.12 seconds to break Renaldo "Skeets" Nehemiah's world junior record that had stood since 1978.

Zhang Wenxiu, who beat Gu Yuan, fourth in the Paris world championships in 2003, last Sunday to win the women's hammer with an Asian record breaking toss of 72.37 meters, will meet Gu again on Thursday.

Li Xuemei, the Asian record holder in both women's 100m and 200m (10.79/22.01), won both events in Nanning. But the times 11.51 and 23.29 are still far away from the best times in 1997.

Li, who has just recovered from injuries which kept her away from the track for 20 months, will again run here.

Some 1,600 athletes representing 46 teams will compete in the two-day event.

Source: Xinhua