BEIJING, China (AFP) — Chinese sports fans reacted furiously yesterday after home-grown hero Liu Xiang was prevented from winning the 110-metre hurdles at the World Championships in Daegu by an “unsportsmanlike” foul.

Photos of Cuba’s reigning World and Olympic champion Dayron Robles with his hand appearing to push Liu back as they crossed the penultimate hurdle were plastered all over the Chinese media.

One enraged fan went as far as comparing the incident to Zinedine Zidane’s head butt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup final and to when Mike Tyson bit off a chunk of Evander Holyfield’s ear in a 1997 title fight.

Liu is a superstar at home, where his status and fame has seen him described as China’s David Beckham.

Although Robles initially won the race, he was later disqualified for the foul, allowing American Jason Richardson to take gold and Liu silver.

But many fans thought the Chinese hurdler would have finished first were it not for the infringement.

“Shame on Robles,” one disgruntled fan posted on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, “without the foul the gold medal would have belonged to Liu Xiang.”

Another posting read: “I hate Robles to death, it is not right that someone as unsportsmanlike as Robles should get a medal.”

Liu, the 2004 Olympic gold medallist and one time world record holder, was more measured in his reaction and described Robles as a friend.

“I felt like someone touched my elbow and I lost my balance for a while but then I managed to stabilise it. It happens all the time in competitions but this time, in the final of the world championships, it was kind of different,” he said.

“I’m sorry this happened to him because he’s a friend of mine.”

Liu’s sportsmanlike demeanour did not appear to rub off on many of his adoring fans.

“To obstruct someone like this at such a critical moment, surely cannot be a friend,” Wudingshandexiong posted on Weibo, before comparing Robles to both Zidane and Tyson.

Meanwhile, Chinese vice president Xi Jinping met with Cuban envoy Jose Ramon Balaguer yesterday, state news agency Xinhua reported, pledging to uphold the long-term friendship between the two countries and their communist parties.