Cuban Robles gives further warning to Liu Xiang

By Patrick Vignal

PARIS (Reuters) - Cuban Dayron Robles demonstrated once again the struggle Olympic champion Liu Xiang will face at next month's Beijing Games by clocking the joint second fastest time ever for the men's 110 meters hurdles on Friday.

Robles, whose battle with Olympic champion and former world record holder Liu promises to be one of the highlights of the athletics in Beijing, clocked 12.88 seconds on a cloudy but still evening at the Paris Golden league meeting.

The Cuban's time was a hundredth of a second off the world record he set last month in Ostrava and equaled the previous best mark of 12.88 Liu set in Lausanne in 2006.

In Liu's absence, Robles was in a class of his own in the French capital. Terrence Trammell took second place in 13.19 and Antwon Hicks was third in 13.27.

"I felt very good, easy," Robles told reporters. "I'm just waiting for the Olympics. Will I break the world record again this year? I don't know."

Trammell paid tribute to Robles, saying: "You have to take your hat off to him, he's really in a groove."

Jeremy Wariner had earlier suggested he could retain his Olympic 400 meters title when he clocked the fastest time of the year.

Wariner entered the final straight level with fellow American LaShawn Merritt and stepped up a gear in the last 100 meters to win relatively comfortably in 43.86 seconds, beating the previous year's best of 43.98 he had set last month in Oslo.