August 19, 2008 11:32 PM

With two top hurdlers out, Oliver not taking medal for granted

By Chris Tomasson

BEIJING _ One could say David Oliver's chances at winning a hurdling medal are a lot better now that two of his toughest competitors have dropped out.

But that's not how the Denver East High School graduate is looking at it.

On Monday, defending champion Liu Xiang of China pulled up lame, and was out of the 110-meter hurdles. Also that day, U.S. Terrence Trammell, the silver medalist in both 2000 and 2004, was lost due to hamstring injury.

"I don't believe him not being in the race affected my chances to win a medal of some sort,'' Oliver wrote in an e-mail to the Rocky Mountain News, referring to Liu's absence. "We run the hurdles and anything can happen, which was more than evident (Tuesday) in the women's final.''

In the women's 100 hurdle final, American Lolo Jones was leading before hitting the next-to-last hurdle, and lost to teammate Dawn Harper. Oliver, who is tied for the ninth-best time ever in his event, has won his first two heats and will look in Wednesday's semifinals to clinch a berth in Thursday's final.

"It is very unfortunate that he had to pull out with being injured,'' Oliver wrote about Liu. "I know exactly how it feels. Last year in Osaka, at the World Championships, I had a hamstring injury and I was unable to compete up to my abilities.

"I was in the back warming down (after a heat) when I saw that he was unable to go.  I felt a little saddened at the fact that he is the defending champion and will lose his title without really being able to defend it.  I felt sorry for all of his very loyal fans, who will not get to see their hero run and they won't be able to see the dream matchup of him versus (Cuban Dayron) Robles and the Americans.''

Robles earlier this year broke Liu's world record with a time of 12.87 seconds while Oliver's personal best is 12.95. Oliver won the Olympic trials, but teammate Trammell was still considered a formidable foe.

"I am not sure what happened to Terrence, but he said his hamstring grabbed on him in the call room area doing a last buildup,'' Oliver wrote. "When I saw that, I was deeply hurt.  He is one of the all-time greatest hurdlers.  It is very disturbing because you never know if that will happen to you.  Injuries reduce us 'invincible' athletes to just mere mortals.  I hope that he and Liu will both recover fast and be ready for all of us to go at it next season.''

Oliver has won his first two heats easily. He has no complaints.

"Things are going very well,'' he wrote. "I am doing a lot of things right technically, but the main thing is to stay healthy and just advance through the rounds.  I don't have to go out and re-invent the wheel in order to do what I know I am capable of doing.''

Posted by Chris Tomasson at 11:32 PM | Comments (0)