It would have been the pinnacle of his career to repeat his win at home. Great athletes want to compete more than anything. From chinaview:
He is definitely injured. “But the Shanghai native winced in pain after leaping over only a few hurdles in warm-up. A right foot injury was obviously hindering his movement as he staggered back to the starting point.”
He was definitely under tremendous pressure to compete: “In his telegram, Xi expressed his hope that Liu, after he recovered, would make harder efforts for the national glory.”