CCTV anchor had prepared for Liu Xiang's Olympic failure

The 2004 gold medalist crashed out of the London Olympics to the heartbreak of his millions of fans back home.

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Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has admitted it knew that hurdler Liu Xiang was struggling and had already prepared four scripts so that when the national hero fell at the first hurdle at the London Olympics, the network's anchor Yang Jian was able to spout an apparently impromptu commentary that touched many people watching on TV back home.

Sha Tong, chief of CCTV's anchor division, said Yang had learned of the hurdler's injury before the event and told Sha, who reported to the network's management team. The management made an emergency order and Yang prepared four scripts to prepare for Liu's imminent failure, according to the Chinese-language Chongqing Times.

"Liu Xiang has withdrawn from the Games in the cruelest way we could have imagined. He fought like a soldier and imagined he could fly like this was 2004, but this time it caused his fall. This is the worst result I could imagine in the London Olympics and it has come true," Yang said in a choked voice as the injured Liu stumbled at the first hurdle and ambled to the finish line, where he kissed the final hurdle before walking off the track.

The hurdler was the favorite to repeat his 2004 Olympic gold a few months before the London Games as he had recorded a time of 12.87 seconds earlier this year, equaling the world record. But an injury to his Achilles tendon in July this year meant a repeat of his home Olympics in 2008, when he withdrew through injury, was more likely. After crashing into the first hurdle, he hopped the rest of the race to the sympathetic applause of 80,000 spectators.

Yang had offered ambiguous statements regarding his commentary on the day, saying that the hurdler should have known that he could not compete effectively, based on a microblog interview with Liu he had read on Aug. 9. Asked how many scripts he had prepared before the event, Yang said, "I made several assumptions but what happened was unexpectedly and tragically sad," according to Chongqing Times.

Yang also stated that the emotion he expressed in his commentary was genuine.