(Reuters) – Former Olympic high hurdles champion Liu Xiang of China defeated the 2008 Beijing gold medallist Dayron Robles on Saturday in their first race since the Cuban was disqualified for obstructing Liu at last year’s world championships.
Liu clocked 7.41 seconds in the 60 metres hurdles at the Birmingham indoor meeting, nine hundredths of a second ahead of Robles.
World record holder Robles was disqualified in Daegu after crossing the line first. The gold medal was awarded to American Jason Richardson with Liu getting the silver.
Commonwealth 100 metres champion Lerone Clarke upstaged his fellow-Jamaican Asafa Powell by winning the men’s 60 metres in 6.47 seconds. Another Jamaican, Nesta Carter, was second with former world 100 metres record holder Powell finishing third.
Former world long jump champion Tianna Madison of the United States, who has re-emerged as a sprinter, won the women’s 60 metres in 7.07 seconds.
Ethiopia’s former world junior cross country champion Genzebe Dibaba made no contest of the women’s 1,500 metres, running on her own after the pacemaker dropped out to win in four minutes 01.33 seconds. Britain’s world silver medallist Hannah England was more than eight seconds back in second place.
British women’s pole vault world record holder Holly Bleasdale continued her impressive indoor form, defeating Poland’s former world champion Anna Rogowska with a height of 4.70 metres.
Her team mate Jessica Ennis, the 2009 world heptathlon champion, won the 60 metres hurdles in a personal best and world leading time of 7.87 seconds in her final competition before next month’s world indoor championships in Istanbul.
