The Olympic champion and world record-holder Liu Xiang looks on track to add the World Championship to his growing list of titles as he cruised into tomorrow night’s final at the Nagai Stadium this evening.

Liu’s task was made easier when the defending champion, Ladji Doucoure of France, was eliminated, looking decidedly race rusty after an injury-ravaged season.

Xiang means ''spreading wings to fly'', but the Chinese sprint hurdler kept his feet on the ground, metaphorically at least, in the last of the three semis to secure his place in the final in second place without expending unnecessary energy or risking a fall.

He didn’t exactly need to fly, running 13.25, 0.04s behind the Cuban Dayron Robles, some way short of the blistering world record he set last year and the 12.92 world leading time he ran in New York at the beginning of June.

His time placed him fifth among the list of qualifiers headed by David Payne of the United States with 13.19, though it was Terence Trammell, the American whom Liu beat to the Olympic title, who looks like his closest challenger again. Trammell looked sharp in the second heat which he won in 13.23.

Payne, the Pan-American silver medallist, won the first heat in 13.19 with a late surge that took him past the Commonwealth champion Maurice Wignall, with Liu’s teammate Shi Dongpeng, grabbing the second qualifying place in 13.24.

Wignall was rewarded for his great start – he led to hurdle eight – with a season’s best 13.29, while Jackson Quinonez broke the Spanish record with 13.33 for fourth. Both made it into the final as the two fastest losers.

The second heat pitched Doucoure against Trammell, twice an Olympic silver medallist, but it was no contest. The US champion led from the start for an easy win in 13.23, as Doucoure was run out of it in fourth.

After a poor start, the Frenchman could never make up the ground although a desperate lean pushed him above Cuba’s Yoel Hernandez into third. With only the first two guaranteed to go through, his time of 13.36 was not quick enough to take him through.

The third race was all about Liu and Robles. They pulled clear of the rest at the fourth hurdle and ran perfectly in step, like synchronised hurdlers, until two steps from the line. Liu looked around, saw he was safe, and eased up allowing Robles to take the tape in 13.21.

“The race was easier than yesterday’s,” said Liu. “But it is tomorrow’s race that matters.”

Osaka 2007 News Team/mkb