China's star hurdler, Liu Xiang will definitely miss this month's World Championships in Athletics after being left out of the lineup released by the Chinese Athletics Administrative Center (CAAC) yesterday.

Due to the absence of the men's 110m hurdles defending champion, China's medal expectations have been considerably lowered.

For the 12th Athletics World Championships in Berlin, which will be held from Aug 15-23, China will send a delegation of 32 athletes and half of them will be making their worlds debuts.