Recently, the famous men's 110-meter hurdles coach Sun Haiping accepted an exclusive interview with Olympic champion Xu Lijia and recalled the cooperation with Liu Xiang that year. One of the most valuable points is that Sun Haiping, under the questioning of Xu Lijia, talked about the inside story of Liu Xiang's withdrawal from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Sun Haiping said: "If the training at that time was more conservative and not affected by any factors, at least Liu Xiang would not withdraw from the competition." ”
This is the first time that Sun Haiping has reviewed his training methods in public, and from another point of view, Sun Haiping has publicly admitted that Liu Xiang's retirement from the game due to injury 11 years ago is indeed injured to an incomparable degree, and there are obvious problems in his training arrangements. For an old coach who has retired and has been engaged in the hurdle business for nearly 50 years, this word is very heavy from Sun Haiping's mouth.
At that time, no matter how much pressure Liu Xiang shouldered, the plan, rhythm, and detailed arrangement of training and preparation were actually mainly in the hands of Sun Haiping, and this was no wonder. From Sun Haiping's self-examination words 11 years later, it can be seen that Sun Haiping was also self-examining for many years later, and the amount of training was better controlled at the beginning, and Liu Xiang should not have run the first shot of the Beijing Olympic Games.
After the heyday of Liu Xiang, Robles and Merritt, the world men's 110m hurdles from the 2013 season to the 2016 season. In the past 20 years, the world's men's 110-meter hurdles have been the most magnificent climax in history, led by Liu Xiang, a genius who has not been encountered in Chinese athletics for a hundred years. Before Liu Xiang, the world record in the men's 110m hurdles was 12.91 seconds, held by Briton Colin Jackson for 11 years. Then there was Liu Xiang's 12.88 seconds, then Roberts' 12.87 seconds, and in 2012, the American Ars Merritt raised the world record for the project to 12.80 seconds.
As for the mentor-apprentice relationship between Liu Xiang and Sun Haiping, it should be said that the historical encounter brought the two together, and the two can use our familiar words to say that it is a relationship of "the scale does not leave the scale, and the scale does not depart from the name". Of course, it is affirmative that Liu Xiang is an absolute genius in the identity of an athlete. So how to polish Liu Xiang's piece of precious jade into a big instrument, no one has similar experience, Sun Haiping was also constantly groping and walking.
The most accomplished coach in the world's men's high hurdles in the past 20 years should be Cuba's Antunes. At the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Antonez's disciple, 21-year-old Cuban Anil Garcia, won the title in 13.00 seconds. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Antonez's beloved, the 21-year-old Cuban teenager Robles won the championship in Beijing with a time of 12.93 seconds, and Robles ran a new world record of 12.87 seconds that year. Robles was hailed by Antunez as "a gift from God." Ortega, who defected from Cuba to Spain a few years ago, is also a good seedling discovered by Antunes in his later years.
For Sun Haiping, being Liu Xiang's master is also the luckiest thing in his career. Any self-examination and self-examination will not affect the image of Coach Sun Haiping, but this kind of courage to say his shortcomings and mistakes is the real style of everyone. Since the end of last year, Liu Xiang's disciple Xie Wenjun, with the consent of Coach Sun Haiping, has come to the United States to teach by Angel jerrys, who is the famous coach of Ars Merritt, the owner of the 12.80 seconds world record in 2012.
After retirement, Sun Haiping is still training young athletes in the front line, and perhaps he can no longer have the opportunity to discover the next Liu Xiang, but his spirit of daring to self-deny and letting his disciples continue to try and explore in new areas is the style of a world-class coach.
Sun Haiping revealed that Liu Xiang ran 12.60 seconds in training before the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. Theoretically, if Antunez had taken Liu Xiang at that time, Liu Xiang would have been able to raise the world record in the men's 110-meter hurdles to less than 12.80 seconds before 2006. But history is history, and it cannot be assumed that Liu Xiang is Chinese and Sun Haiping is also Chinese. We are proud to have the genius Liu Xiang, and we should also be proud to have Sun Haiping, a local coach like Sun Haiping, who escorted Liu Xiang all the way and led him to create a peak of 12.88 seconds.