Defending the 110-meter hurdles title, Olympic champion Liu Xiang pulled out of the competition due to foot injuries Monday morning when the heat was held at the Bird's Nest.

Liu's injury is at the heel of his right foot, where the bone is attached to the tendon. It's a long-term injury and has been well managed over the past four years, but the injury was exacerbated last Saturday. After all possible treatments failed to stop the killing pain, Liu was forced to withdraw, Feng Shuyong, Chinese athletics head coach, said in a press conference held 20 minutes after he left the track.

Sun Haiping, coach of China's Liu Xiang, cries during a new conference following Liu's failure to start his men's 110m hurdles heat in the National Stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games August 18, 2008. Liu's dream of defending his Olympic title on home soil ended on Monday when he hobbled off the track before his first-round heat in the 110 metres hurdles. [Agencies]

CCTV, the Chinese official broadcaster for the Games, stopped games broadcasting and gave a live broadcast of the press conference.

This was the first time in the Beijing Games a conference had been held to explain the withdrawal of an athlete, said a hostess of CCTV.

The Athens champion and the world record holder until June, Liu is the first Chinese to ever pocket a gold in an athletics event at the Olympics. The whole of China was expecting Liu to defend his championship at this year's Games.

Liu isn't the first athlete to let down the home crowd. On Sunday night, gold medal hopeful Cheng Fei made unexpected mistakes in two events in a row and failed to secure two golds the host country expected.

Back on the first day of the Games, Chinese shooter Du Li also failed to rise to the expectations of the Chinese audience and missed out on winning the first gold of this Olympics, to Katerina Emmons.

Despite all these unexpected incidents, the host country has been topping the medal tally in terms of gold medals ever since the start of the Games. Nine days into the Games, China has secured more gold medals than it won at the Athens Games.

China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang walks away after failing to start his 110 metres hurdles first-round heat of the athletics competition at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 18, 2008. After one false start Liu stopped before the first hurdle clutching his leg and then walked out of the stadium. [Agencies]

What makes the medal ranking possible is that though China has lost some golds it expected, it has also has secured some unexpected ones.

Female archer Zhuang Juanjuan nailed gold in the archery, breaking the decade-long monopoly of South Korean archers in this event. Chinese fencer Zhong Man also left a gold mark in the history of Olympic fencing, becoming the first Chinese male fencer to win at the Olympics.

What's more, the two teams to play at the final of the women's beach volleyball are set to be two Chinese teams. I guess not many Chinese can name these four players, they are Tian Jia/ Wang Jie and Zhang Xi/Xue Chen.

Also keep in mind that in contrast to Liu's withdrawal, two Chinese athletes made it to the second round of 110-meter hurdles. While the two young Chinese runners may be no match for Cuban Robles, they signal hope.

Just like a coin has two sides, so has the Chinese team's performance at this Games. On one side some iconic athletes regretfully failed to meet the expectations of the home crowd, on the other, their younger and less famous teammates stood up to help share the responsibility to fight for the honor of the motherland.

Liu Xiang's drop-out has knocked many Chinese into speechlessness, including me. But after reviewing the medal tally of the Chinese team, a thread of reassurance exuded from my heart.

The Chinese team has been performing so well even though some Chinese star athletes failed to play to their best. When the fate of a team doesn't hang on the performances of one or two leading members, I think we can confidently say the team is maturing.

Maybe Liu's drop-out crashed most Chinese people's dream of having a star Chinese athlete as phenomenal as Michael Phelps, but most Chinese should feel content with the performance of the team so far. They tell us the average level of professional Chinese sport is rising. They are telling us that China's sports undertakings are seeing a more and more all-round development and the average level of professional Chinese sport is rising.

Email:Yangjie1@chinadaily.com.cn