GLASGOW hurdler Allan Scott was forced to dig deep as he squeezed through his opening heat of the 110m hurdles today.

Scott finished third in the final heat of the morning in a time of 13.53 seconds, but it was the withdrawal of world and Olympic champion Liu Xiang that dominated the headlines at the 91,000-seater Bird's Nest Stadium.

Liu, considered China's best athletics gold medal hope and the face of the Games for the host nation, was clearly in pain as he pulled up in the opening heat and was helped off the track in floods of tears.

But, as the sell-out crowd murmured their disbelief, Scott had to stay focused to progress to tomorrow's second round.

"I hadn't even noticed he had pulled out," revealed Scott. "The atmosphere was amazing, I have never seen anything else like that and it was nice to be a part of it.

"You have to focus on yourself. I knew I had ten heights hurdles to focus on so I concentrated on my own race.

"I just assumed he was through, when I looked at the replay and saw the result I thought where has he gone?' "It's disappointing for the home crowd but the rest of us will probably view it as another man down."

After a false start, Liu pulled up and stunned the home crowd when he was forced to withdraw.

"Liu Xiang has two injuries, one in his foot and one in his leg," his coaches said.

"One of the injuries is an accumulated injury. In the past he has not dropped out of any competition easily.

"His right heel injury has been a problem since six years ago, even before the Athens Olympics.

"On August 16, we arrived at the Olympic village; medical experts analyzed Liu's injury and specified there was a problem on Liu's Achilles's tendon."

Cuban world record holder Dayron Robles made it into the last 16 as did Team GB's Andrew Turner. Lee: I've no excuses for track flop

GLASGOW'S Lee McConnell admitted there were 'no excuses' after failing to reach the women's 400m final.

On bikes, in boats and in and on the water, Britain plundered a bounty of treasure in the greatest weekend of Olympic success in living memory.

But the golden glow was not in evidence on the track yesterday.

McConnell - whose Beijing preparations were hit by illness and a family bereavement - ran a slower time in the semis than she did in the previous day's heats, 52.11 seconds.

"I am so disappointed," she said. "It did not go the way I had hoped but it's done now.

"Possibly I went out too fast. I was never flowing at any point. I was working too hard the whole way and I obviously paid for that at the end of the race.

"I was not nervous. I don't have any excuses for it. I just ran poorly and I'm really disappointed.

"It's not good by my standards and I'm going to have to go get myself together because the relay is a great medal chance for us."

Nicola Sanders, the silver medallist at last year's World Championships, also missed out on qualification. Heartache for Helen

TRIATHLON world champion Helen Tucker admitted she was running on empty after her maiden Olympics ended in disappointment.

The 24-year-old Elgin-born star was tipped as a medal contender after winning the World Championships in June, but finished 21st.

She said: "I am really disappointed. It was not my day." Phillips lays down the marker with longest jump

PHILLIPS IDOWU showed why he is the favourite for the triple jump crown with an excellent first effort in the qualifiers today.

The 29-year-old Londoner hopped, skipped and jumped his way to 17.44 metres, 0.34m past the automatic qualification mark and the furthest of the competition.

He will be joined in the final on Thursday by Larry Achike after his 17.18m effort, but Nathan Douglas missed out with a best of 16.72m.

Martyn Rooney and Andrew Steele both impressed as they sailed through to the 400m semi-finals.

Rooney continued his fine form with a run of 45 seconds to win his semi-final, while Steele went even quicker, winning heat six in 44.94, beating his previous best by 0.37.

Marlon Devonish, Christian Malcolm and Ireland's Paul Hession all made it through the heats of the 200m, but there was disappointment for Alex Nelson who was forced to pull out with a hamstring injury.