Liu, Campbell-Brown breeze through world indoor heats

Stars Liu Xiang and Veronica Campbell-Brown breezed through to the semi-finals of their events on the second day of the World Indoor Athletics Championships here on Saturday. Liu, who was the gold medallist at the 2008 Valencia world indoors to add to previous silver and bronze showings, clocked 7.62sec in finishing his 60m hurdles heat just behind Briton Andrew Pozzi, who topped the timings with 7.61. But he admitted to being concerned by the starter's orders, with which many athletes had problems on the opening day of action at the Atakoy Arena on Friday amid a raft of false starts. "The starter speaks with a low voice and it was hard for me to understand his 'ready'," said Liu, who set a new Asian record of 7.41sec in Birmingham, England, last month but whose last outing in Stockholm ended with a false start disqualification. "I waited for the athlete on my right to go off to start. I false started in Stockholm and did not want to make the same mistake." Campbell-Brown, a five-time Olympic medallist who is reigning world and Olympic 200m champion, clocked an easy-going 7.29sec to progress to Sunday's semi-finals. "It's so competitive so it will come down to who executes the best. We may see a sub-7sec race here," the Jamaican said. "You can't make mistakes in the 60m. You have to be sharp and the start is the most important part." Nigerian Gloria Asumnu recorded the fastest heat time of 7.19sec, leading Bulgarian Ivet Lalova, Laverne Jones-Ferrette of the US Virgin Islands and Ivorian Murielle Ahoure. Chandra Sturrup, the 40-year-old veteran from the Bahamas, rolled back the years to nip American world leader Tianna Madison in her heat. American world record holder Ashton Eaton, the current world decathlon silver medallist, was in firm control of the men's heptathlon with just the 1000m to run. Having timed 6.79sec in the 100m, jumped 8.16m in the long jump, managed a best of 14.56m in the shot put and cleared 2.03m in the high jump on Friday, Eaton opened Saturday's action with a scintillating 7.68sec in the 60m hurdles. He went on to clear 5.20m in the pole vault to leave him on 5,690 points, well set to beat his own world record of 6,568 points set in February last year. Elsewhere, world outdoor champion Christian Taylor of the United States did a season's best of 17.39m to guarantee his place in the men's triple jump finals. "I was a little flat but I am happy with my jump," Taylor said. "It's my season's best so I am really happy about it. "I want to make it a double after Daegu and show I will be ready in July (at the London Olympics). The evening session sees women's finals in the 60m hurdles, 400m, 1500m, high jump, triple jump and shot put. Men will contest finals in the 60m, 400m, 1500m, long jump and pole vault, with the heptathlon also climaxing with the seventh and final event, the 1000m.