Chinese national coach Feng Shuyong on Tuesday urged the press not to exert to much pressure on Olympic champion Liu Xiang at the 10th world championships.

A record of 34 Chinese journalists are in Finland's capital to cover the track and field worlds, and the 22-year-old Liu, who won the men's 110m hurdle gold in the Athens Olympics, is what most of them are here for. More than 10 are from Liu's hometown Shanghai.

The Big Mouth Feng, who always critisized journalists' reports, said: "I think the press should create a relaxing environment for Liu Xiang, which will help him achieve good results."

The former second-class long jumper revealed that Liu is in a "normal" form, but adding: "All his rivals are so strong that he has no choice but to focus all his attention on preparing for the matches."

Liu is China's only medal hopeful left in the world championships, where the country is still medalless after three days' competition. Their best result came from women's 10,000 meters, in which Olympic champion Xing Huina finished fourth.

Liu has never spoken to the Chinese jounalists after arriving here, and Feng said that he has done a right job. The press should "protect" Liu. "You can not expect Liu Xiang to win every race," Feng said. "In fact, he has showed consistent form this season in all six meets he took part in. "

He said that Liu's performance in the Athens Olympics was "too perfect" to be repeated. "We hope he can run a perfect race, but never forget that he has several tough rivals to beat.

Feng added that France's Ladji Doucoure is Liu Xiang's enemy No. 1 in the championships. Doucoure is this season's fastest hurdler with a time of 12.97 seconds. Liu, who won the Olympic champion in a world record-tying time of 12.91 seconds, has not had an impressive season. His season best time is just 13.05 seconds.

Liu was forced to withdraw from the Oslo Golden League meet and also announced not to run in the other Golden League competitions this season.

The men's 110m hurldes competition will start on Wednesday and the title will be decided on Friday.

Source: Xinhua