It was just the first heat of a race, but for Liu Xiang it was the first step in a long battle to reclaim gold glory to probably end his Olympic career.

Sadly, for China's most-loved athlete, it was not to be. His London Olympic dreams came to a crashing end in a split second. He fell at the first hurdle, ending months of speculation about his fitness and looming questions about his behavior in the run up to the London games.

Fans gasped in horror as they watched him fall, TV presenters sobbed on air.

But Liu didn't going out in shame. He hopped down the track to finish the race last and then went out to cheers from the packed crowd. Cheers for his amazing achievement, but also cheers for his dogged persistence to remain a champion.

Here, we salute that, and everything else China has achieved so far as number one at the London Olympics.