Liu Xiang in full cry

This weekly sports news roundup is from China Sports Today.

• The first day of the Good Luck Beijing Athletics Open saw 110-meter hurdler and world record holder Liu Xiang head into the semifinals with a time of 13.63 seconds in his first heat yesterday (full report).

• The China sports world has been affected by the Wenchuan earthquake, with venues in Sichuan destroyed and athletes forced to relocate to other cities for training (report).

Athletes and sports organizations were some of the first to pledge donations to the relief efforts in Sichuan (report).

Stars from Yao Ming to snooker player Ding Junhui, have found a variety of ways to dedicate their time, money and celebrity to earthquake relief efforts (report).

• China’s men’s and women’s badminton teams asserted their dominance in the sport by winning the Thomas and Uber Cups in Jakarta (report).

The table tennis team also had a big week, sweeping all four golds in the ITTF Table Tennis China Open (Xinhua article).

• Earlier this week, the disappointing news came out that 10,000 meters champion Xing Huina will not defend her Olympic gold in Beijing, due to a leg injury (report).

• China Sports Today took a walk down Wangfujing pedestrian street to gauge the current state of sports advertising in Beijing, and couldn’t get away from Kobe Bryant’s mug (report and photos of billboards).

• The Olympic gymnastics draw was held in Tianjin last week in conjunction with the FIG World Cup of Gymnastics. China’s women were unhappy with their draw, which includes a 10 a.m. start time and being grouped with Romania (report).