It was over before it even began. China's star hurdler Liu Xiang's quest to repeat his feat of capturing the gold medal at the 110 meter hurdles came to an end Monday when limped off the track due to injury during a warm-up practice for the preliminaries.

Apparently, he had been nursing the Achilles' tendon injury for quite some time now and hadn't totally recovered, but was forced (he couldn't really say no to the government, after all) to participate in the Beijing Games anyway.

Ever since winning the gold medal for China in the 110 meters hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympics, Liu Xiang showed the world that China can compete with the rest of the world in track and field. His quest to repeat in Beijing was billed one of the must-see event for the Chinese.