China's top female hurdler Huang Xiaoxiao won her event at the Bird's Nest on May 23, but only after appealing vigorously at the end of an exhausting 400m flying sprint.
Minutes after the 25-year-old from Shandong province aced the long hurdles event at the China Athletics Open, a pre-Olympics tune-up, she was informed she had been disqualified for jumping aside one of the hurdles rather than over it.
The judges later backpedaled, decided they were at fault for issuing a wrong call, and handed over the gold 90 minutes later.
Huang said that which does not DQ her only makes her stronger.
"This was good for me because it will just make me pay more attention to my training and future competitions," she said.
"I'm still happy and that call didn't have a big impact because I believe in myself and I know I never committed that foul."
Fouls were nevertheless a clear and present danger on a weekend where reigning Olympic champ Liu Xiang jumped the gun before clinching his gold medal Saturday night after a re-start, on a day when spectators and sports officials admitted to being wowed by the splendor of the centerpiece stadium of the upcoming Beijing Games.
Although the Olympic dry-run for track and field events went without a hitch, any such misdemeanors on the track by Chinese athletes will not go down well with judges or fans this August when real Olympic medals are at stake.
China has few world leaders on the track and Huang is one of the special few who hope to lay claim to a medal in her event. She was the first Asian women to break 54 seconds at the 400m hurdles and has placed fifth at both of the last two World Championships.
She said the opportunity to test out the Bird's Nest was crucial even though the rest of the entries were a class below - silver-medal-winner Kubakura Satomi of Japan was a massive 1.54 seconds behind.
"I played with a few things here to prepare for the Beijing Games, such as changing my rhythm between hurdles," Huang said.
Huang lengthened her stride mid-race, a tactic that helped her hit her personal best and do well in the semifinals of last year's Worlds in Osaka.
She described her decision to change pace on Friday as a spontaneous one.
"It was quite a challenge because I was not ready for it even though I have been training like that for a while."
"To be honest, finishing the new rhythm without any mistakes feels even better than winning the title here," she said.
Starting her career at 15, she zoomed ahead to capture the Asian title in 2003.
"That was when I realized I was capable of doing something extraordinary because I also won a silver medal from the World University Games," she said.
The Chinese camp has recently added Sun Haiping, coach of Liu Xiang, to Huang's coaching group to help bolster her chances in the final 10 weeks.
Chinese fans are now calling her the "female Liu Xiang".
"He is my idol," Huang said. "Saying my name in the same breath as his gives me that extra bit of motivation to succeed."
