World record holder for the men's 110m Hurdles Liu Xiang of China will compete in both German legs of the IAAF indoor permit season, with starts over 60m Hurdles at the Sparkassen-Cup in Stuttgart on Saturday 3 February, and at the BW-Bank meeting in Karlsruhe on 11 February.

Liu Xiang en route to his 12.93 victory in Stuttgart [Getty Images]

The 23-year-old from Shanghai holds the Area record for the indoor sprint hurdles with a time of Indoor 7.43 seconds which he ran when taking silver at the World Indoor Championships in Budapest, Hungary, on 6 March 2004. That record is just 0.13 shy of Colin Jackson¡äs World indoor record of 7.30.

He first time competed indoors in Europe in 2002, running in Stockholm, Gent, Eaubonne, Athens, Lievin, while the following year he ran indoors only twice in Europe (Linz, Vienna) prior to taking the bronze medal at the 2003 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, UK.

In 2004, the year in which he would later become Olympic champion in the process tying Jackson¡¯s then World record, Liu Xiang embarked on another short campaign limited to the Hungarian nationals and the meeting in Lievin, France, before contesting the World indoors in Budapest.

Unforgettably last summer, Liu Xiang sped to the outright World record for the 110m Hurdles (12.88 seconds) on 11 July in Lausanne, Switzerland. He also came away from the 2006 season with good memories of Stuttgart, as there he was saluted by a large crowd which contained of hundreds of fans waving Chinese flag, after he took the World Athletics Final title with another stunning run of 12.93 seconds.