Olympic champion Liu Xiang skipped several competitions to nurse a "minor" injury and got a full recovery, which won agreement from a Chinese sports medicine expert Wednesday.

"Because of the injury, he was sidelined for a long time and missed several competitions but he got a good recovery, which is well worth it," said Li Guoping, chief medical officer of Chinese Olympic Committee, who organizes the 29th FIMS World Congress of Sports Medicine here, starting on Wednesday through to Friday.

"He maybe missed a few medals now but there will be more room for him to improve in his performance in the future with fitness,"he said.

Liu incurred an ankle injury after a training session in middle February. Although doctors said that no bones nor ligament were injured, they suggested a careful rehabilitation.

Liu's coach Sun Haiping was once optimistic about his chance of comeback in early March but it turned out that Sun, according to doctors advice, gave his protege nearly two months for nursing an injury that traditionally is ignored by Chinese athletes and coaches.

"It is better for the athletes this way," Li said. "I am happy to see that national team coaches begin to pay more attention to doctors' advice and give athletes longer time to recover. It will benefit them in the long run."

Liu became Chinese national treasure after the 23-year-old clinched the country's first-ever sprint gold in the 110m hurdles at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games.

He was forced to drop out a national indoor meet in Shanghai in February and Moscow indoor meet in March due to the injury.

The Shanghai-based hurdler had complained of fatigue after a busy schedule of competition and public appearance last year. Sun said this year would be Liu's "relaxing time", reducing the number of competitions by half compared with last year.

There will be only two major events for Liu this year: the Athens World Cup in August and Asian Games in Doha in December.

(Xinhua News Agency?June 15, 2006)