Liu Xiang Limps While Nike Beams

Liu Xiang has been China's secret weapon - an athlete who bore the hopes of 1.3 billion people on his shoulders and simply not allowed to lose.

Well, yesterday in the Bird's Nest, incredibly, he lost.

Guess who's the biggest winner?
I'd say the advertisers.

Liu advertises everything from milk to Nike, Cadillac to Coca-Cola - are on every hoarding, on the side of every bus and features in numerous TV ads.

The bespoke pair of Nike Zoom Aerofly LX spikes, which made its debut yesterday got all the attention "on the side-track", as opposed to "on the track".

Not due to its distinctively colours, it was because Liu was limping and all cameras naturally zoomed in to the limping feet wearing the tailor-made spikes.

Didn't that alone enough to make Nike the biggest winner?