SHANGHAI — China’s Liu Xiang won the Shanghai Diamond League meet 110m hurdles Saturday in a season-leading 12.97sec as he strengthened his bid to reclaim the Olympic title.

Liu won it comfortably from America’s David Oliver and world champion Jason Richardson, to the delight of his screaming home-town fans, before ripping off his vest in an excited celebration.

Oliver timed 13.13 and Richardson clocked 13.16, while world indoor champion Aries Merritt was fourth. With just two months to go, Liu has laid down an important marker for the London Olympics.

In other results, Jamaican Olympic champion Veronica Campbell-Brown beat America’s Carmelita Jeter in the women’s 100m, while former world record-holder Asafa Powell raised his hopes for London by winning the men’s 100m in 10.02sec.

Powell, beaten by a resurgent Justin Gatlin in this month’s opening Diamond League meeting in Doha, timed six hundredths of a second quicker than America’s Michael Rodgers, who was recently hit with a nine-month, retroactive drug ban.

But there was heartbreak for Australia’s Olympic pole-vault champion Steve Hooker, who bombed out after failing his first three jumps — a serious setback as he tries to battle back from an alarming crisis of confidence.

Hooker missed three jumps at 5.30 meters. China’s Yang Yansheng won the event with 5.65 while German Bjorn Otto, who has the season-leading vault of 5.82, was second.

Ethiopian distance legend Kenenisa Bekele also had an evening to forget as the Olympic champion finished fifth in the men’s 5,000m, nearly four seconds behind the winner, fellow Ethiopian Hagos Gebrhiwet, who timed 13min 11.00sec. — Agencies