There were also potentially significant results for London 2012 in the women's 200m, where Jamaica's world and Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown held off the American who beat her to the 100m world title last year, Carmelita Jeter (pictured bottom, left), and in the triple jump, where Britain's Phillips Idowu opened his season with 17.24 metres to beat the American who took gold to his silver in Daegu last year, Christian Taylor.

In the men's 100m, Jamaica's former world record holder Asafa Powell (pictured below, right) – beaten by American former Olympic champion Justin Gatlin in the opening Diamond League meeting of the season in Doha, earned a measure of revenge over the United States, if not Gatlin, by holding off Michael Rodgers to win.


"Tonight, I executed very well," said Liu (pictured above, centre), Olympic champion at Athens 2004 and world champion three years later.

"I hope that I can keep my momentum, keep my form and pay attention to the details during the training so that I can perform well in the future."

It was the first time Liu and Richardson (pictured above, right) had met in a race since last year's world championships in Daegu, South Korea, where Liu tangled with Cuban Dayron Robles over the final hurdles.

Robles crossed first but was disqualified after Liu appealed, elevating Richardson to first and Liu to second.

"I know that [Liu] is incredibly hard to beat here," said Richardson.

"What I will say was surprising was to see an entire country get behind one athlete.

"I tip my hat to the Chinese culture.

"I wish we had a little bit more of that in America."


Campbell-Brown (pictured above, right) commented: "The more I win, the more confident I become, so it's good.

"This is my first 200m of the season and I have a lot of work to do.

"The way I feel in this one, I know that each one will get better."

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