That gold will now not be.This morning Liu Xiang lined up for his heat at the Bird’s Nest, but failed to run it, in an instant bringing Beijing to a standstill. A false start by another hurdler, and Liu pulled out. Minutes after he left the stadium, in the silence that has been his since the Games began, his coaches appeared before the media to say that an old Achilles tendon injury had recurred Saturday, making it extremely painful to compete. He disconsolately tore off the sticker indicating his participation in lane two and left the ground.

By then everyone in the Olympic Park had clustered around television sets, watching in disbelief, many in tears, as his coaches addressed a somberly conducted press conference. Sun Haiping, 25-year-old Liu’s coach, broke down inconsolably, with the moderator and the head coach of the Chinese athletics team (Feng Shuyong) trying to calm him.

Sun, who had discovered Liu in Shanghai ten years ago, said every medical attention had been provided, but there was no way to help him to stand up.

Feng repeatedly underscored the point: “Liu would not withdraw unless he had no other way out.” Feng faced a barrage of questions. Had the extent of Liu’s injury been concealed? How difficult would it be for the people of China to come to terms with this? (A recent poll, said Feng hopefully, had found that 60 per cent of the people would understand if he did not win the 110m hurdles.) How much pressure did Liu have to withstand? (Just imagine, said Feng, everywhere he goes in China, he sees his photographs. Every time he surfs the Net, he reads news about himself. And as the Games got closer, imagine the pressure on him.)

The official newspaper, China Daily, had hinted this morning that all may not be well with Liu when it headlined a curtain raiser for the race, “Injured Liu vs Terrifying Opponent”. (The opponent is Cuban Dayron Robles, who snipped 0.01 seconds off Liu’s world record this June.)

Liu has been everywhere in Beijing this month, on advertisement hoardings, on the covers of magazines as the single most iconic profile of the Beijing Games. Ever since he unexpectedly won the 110m hurdles at the Athens Olympics, he has altered the narrative of Chinese sport. Sport for China has been a mode of self-expression, an assertion that nothing is out of reach. But while China had zipped up the ladder in the medals tally, its takings in athletics has been quite minimal.

Thus Liu’s own comments after winning that gold as “a kind of a miracle”. “It is unbelievable, a Chinese, an Asian, has won this event,” he said. “It is a proud moment not only for China, but for Asia and all people who share the yellow skin colour.”

With the Athens 110m hurdles, Liu became the first Chinese man to win an athletics gold. And it was no fluke. He went on dominate the 110m, setting a world record in Lausanne in 2006. The record confirmed his place as an extraordinary hurdler, one who made up for his relative slowness as a sprinter with his strides.

His reputed fearlessness and his athletic good looks also made him, along with NBA basketballer Yao Ming, a marketable icon in a country where first-class athletes tend to be anonymous. Forbes estimated his income in 2007 to be $23.9 million. But as this morning’s China Daily reminded readers, unlike Yao, Liu is a “state-owned asset” and shares his endorsement fee with his coach and the Shanghai and national sports administrations.

Jiang Yi, a writer with the Chinese edition of Sports Illustrated, which had Liu on the cover of its Olympics special, explains the difference between the two icons. “Liu is our only Olympic star. Yao is more an NBA star.” Liu’s appeal, he says, goes beyond just his athletic excellence: “Chinese athletes tend to be introverts. Liu has an interesting personality, he has a sense of himself. He gives you a sense of modern China. He is not afraid to show his character.”

Liu’s races are marquee events in China. Stories are told of how during a rehearsal at the Bird’s Nest in May, the stadium almost emptied out once Liu had run his race. But hamstring niggles made him pull out of a New York meet in May, and in June he was unable to complete the race because of a false start.

Jiang agrees that Liu’s exit here today is “a big blow to the entire country”. But: “It’s a bit exaggerated. It is obviously a huge disappointment. But he has to move on. He’s young. Four years later, he’ll still have a chance at London.”

Disappointments happen, agrees Jiang, “but this time it was little bit special. These are the Olympics. In China. This was the single event the Chinese people were looking forward to.” Jiang’s mother had bought a ticket for the semi-finals of the 110m hurdles. “Who knew he’d be out.”

In the end, Jiang recommends a sense of proportion: by the time Liu left the track, China had already got 35 golds, more than it has ever before. By Monday’s end that number has swollen to 39.