When Aries Merritt shot out of the blocks to deny Liu Xiang victory in the 60-meter hurdles, he clinched more than just an unlikely victory.

The American hurdler, who was thought to have little chance against the Chinese great, won the title and cemented a record gold medal haul for the U.S. team at the world indoor championships.

Merritt set the pace in his final. Fastest out of the blocks, he even got the better of Liu, the 2004 Olympic champion who was trying out a new start with one step less to the first hurdle to keep the opposition at bay.

When Liu saw the blur of Merritt, it immediately unsettled him."I knew Aries Merritt is a fast starter," Liu said. "So I got out in a rush and was not able to control my technique."

【滬江小編】北京時(shí)間3月11日，第14屆世界室內(nèi)田徑錦標(biāo)賽在土耳其伊斯坦布爾進(jìn)行男子60米欄決賽。美國(guó)選手梅里特以7秒44獲得冠軍，中國(guó)選手劉翔則在第二個(gè)欄出現(xiàn)了失誤，以7秒49獲得亞軍。

本次室內(nèi)世錦賽，劉翔的主要對(duì)手羅伯斯、奧利弗等都缺陣，唯一能給劉翔帶來(lái)壓力的僅是美國(guó)選手梅里特。正是這位美國(guó)小將，在與劉翔的直接對(duì)決中，拿到了自己的第一個(gè)世界冠軍?！懊防锾氐淖詈贸煽?jī)也達(dá)到了7秒43，他在比賽中也非常拼，恭喜他，這是他第一個(gè)世界冠軍?！陛?shù)舯荣惖膭⑾栾@得十分大度，并沒(méi)有輕視這名后起之秀。

在決賽中，劉翔的起跑出現(xiàn)了一些問(wèn)題，導(dǎo)致第二個(gè)欄時(shí)碰到了欄，使得速度下降，7秒49的成績(jī)并不能令劉翔感到滿意。“起跑反應(yīng)有點(diǎn)慢，過(guò)了第一個(gè)欄就想迅速加起來(lái)，結(jié)果在第二個(gè)欄碰到了腳?！眲⑾柙诜治霎?dāng)時(shí)的情況時(shí)說(shuō)，“沒(méi)什么感受，自己沒(méi)有發(fā)揮好，還是有點(diǎn)遺憾。我對(duì)第二名的名次還是很滿意的，但對(duì)成績(jī)不是很滿意?！?/p>