But his joy was short lived as an illegal tail wind of 2.4 metres pers second nullified his performance for record purposes.

It was, nevertheless, a startling indication that Liu, who was unfortunate only to win World Championships silver last year, is in outstanding shape ahead of London 2012 – in contrast to his injured state ahead of the Beijing Games four years ago.

There was no such ambivalence for Britain's Mo Farah (pictured below) at the Prefontaine Classic as he produced the fastest 5, 000m time of the year as he defeated a field that included the double Olympic champion Kenenisa Bekele.

Farah clocked 12min 56.98sec to finish clear of Kenya's Isaiah Kiplagat Koech, who recorded 12:57.63, and his training partner at his Oregon base, American Galen Rupp, who beat 13 minutes for the first time with 12:58.90.

Bekele, whose recent training has been affected by his commitment to overseeing the construction of a track and sports complex in the suburbs of Addis Ababa, finished fourth in 13:01.48.

"I take a lot from this race," said Farah.

"If you look at the field it was really loaded."

Alberto Salazar, who coaches Farah and Rupp, stood on the infield shouting out lap times as the pair moved to control the race with three laps remaining.


Britain had another reason to be cheerful on the day as Shara Proctor, their naturalised Anguillan-born long jumper, recorded an outdoor personal best of 6.84 metres to defeat a field which included world champion Brittney Reese and world bronze medallist Ineta Radevica.

Sandra Richards-Ross of the United States ran a world-leading time of 49.39 to win the 400m, defeating world champion Amantle Montsho of Botswana in the process.

Abubaker Kaki of Sudan won the 800m – but only just, as he held off the challenge of Ethiopia's 18-year-old Mohamad Aman.

Kaki clocked 1.43.71 to finish just 0.03 clear of the youngster, who is the only man to have beaten world record holder David Rudisha in the last two years.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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