Daegu: Whatever plans you had for August 8, 2012, cancel them. Unless, of course, you have a ticket for the men's 110-metre hurdles final at the London Olympics, in which case, you can now consider yourself extremely lucky.
"Clash of the Communists" or "Robles' Revenge." The Olympic marketers have 12 months to come up with a catchy slogan for what now could be the race of the 2012 Games.
Usain Bolt who? Liu Xiang and Dayron Robles, the two fastest hurdlers in history, overshadowed the world's speediest sprinter on Monday at the world championships in one of the most drama-packed races you could hope to witness.
Until London, that is. Their hoped-for rematch looks mouthwatering thanks to this.
Although these things aren't a certainty, it did look as though Robles hooked Liu's wrist, knocking him off his stride, as they bounded side-by-side over the second-to-last hurdle, and just as the kid from Shanghai was getting his nose ahead.
The Cuban seemed, just for an instant, to wrap a finger or two of his right hand around Liu's left wrist, throwing off his balance and his metronome stride.
Final hurdle
Destabilised, Liu clattered into the final hurdle, knocking it over, and they banged wrists again. Half-sprinting, half-stumbling, Liu dipped over the line in third place.
Chinese coaches and officials in their bright red team shirts sprang out of their seats and packed into the organisers' office in the guts of Daegu Stadium. There, they carefully filled out a written formal protest.
"He grabbed him!" said Liu's mother, Ji Fenhua, up in the stands. "It was on purpose!" Still thinking at that point that the win was his, and with officials yet to rule on the Chinese complaint, Robles explained away the coming-together as one of the risks of men negotiating 10 hurdles at a sprint, all flailing arms and legs.
"It's something that happens in the hurdles," he said. "We're running so close to each other."
Four-time world champion and 1996 Olympic gold medalist Allen Johnson agreed. "He did not grab him," Johnson said of Robles. "The lanes are not wide enough for hurdlers to not swing into someone else. It happens all the time."
For Liu's coach, Sun Haiping, Robles' disqualification was bittersweet, because he couldn't forget that Liu had come so close to the win.
Speedy starts
"This shows that the title was snatched away from Liu Xiang. That's a fact," he said. The lesson he drew was that Liu needs speedier starts, to quickly build a gap between him and the field.
"That way, no one will be able to grab Liu Xiang, not unless you grab his clothes," he said.
Then came the Cuban riposte. A small posse of officials lodged their own appeal against Robles' disqualification.
