China's Xie Wenjun missed a historic podium finish by a whisker at the ongoing IAAF World Championships in Doha on Wednesday as he came fourth at 13.29 seconds in the men's 110-meter hurdles. Even though he came agonizingly close to a medal, Xie's performance was the best by a Chinese male hurdler at the world championships after retired former Olympic and world champion Liu Xiang. 

The nail-biting 110-meter hurdles final also witnessed some dramatic twists and turns as Olympic titlist and defending champion Omar McLeod of Jamaica was disqualified as American Grant Holloway took the victory. 

Under dramatic circumstances, McLeod lost his balance stumbling on the hurdles in the last event of the night. He stumbled onto the track and at the same time blocked the way of Spanish Orlando Ortega beside him.

He faced immediate disqualification and the title went to NCAA champion Holloway, who clocked 13.10 seconds while authorized Neutral Athlete Sergey Shubenkov came second in 13.15 ahead of Pascal Martinot-Lagarde of France in 13.18.

"I felt my hamstring as I came off the first hurdle so then I was thinking about it, not my technique. It grabbed me again half way through. But I gave it my all," a dejected McLeod rued about his disastrous race.

Meanwhile, surprise winner Holloway said, "I am speechless. It's my first major championships and a lot of people were counting me out because I've been off my game in the last month or so, but when you have motivation you never lose."

Earlier on the day, defending champion and Chinese ace Gong Lijiao stormed into the shot put final. Gong expressed her confidence in retaining her title and remarked ahead of today's final, "I decided to accumulate all my energy for tomorrow's final. I have no pressure going to defend my world title."

"My season was great. I had enough strong results and won enough competitions to feel pretty confident," the Chinese stalwart, who lost just one in 13 competitions this season, added.